Hello everyone!

I’m back with another confusing word pair: compliment and complement. Today’s pair tends to trip people up because not only are the words’ meanings somewhat related, but their spellings also differ by only one letter–and they’re also pronounced the same way. Yikes! But fear not; the good news is that there’s an easy way to remember which word means what.

Let’s start with the definitions. Compliment functions as both a verb and a noun, meaning to express praise or appreciation (the verb form) or the actual expression of praise or appreciation (the noun form). So, I complimented her on her new haircut or She received a compliment on her new haircut. Complement also functions as both a verb and a noun, but there are actually two different definitions for the noun. The verb form of complement means to complete something or to make it better. One of the noun forms of complement pairs with the verb (like the noun and verb forms of compliment), meaning something that completes something else or makes it better. The other noun form means the usual required number or amount of something. So, Her new earrings complemented her haircut nicely or Her new earrings were a nice complement to her haircut or She received her full complement of haircuts each year to make sure her locks didn’t get too long.

Now that you know the different definitions, how do you remember which definition goes with which word? The trick that works for me is that compliment has one “i” and one “e,” just like the word nice. When you compliment somebody, you’re being nice. The other trick that works for me is that the extra “e” in complement complements the first. So, complement has two e’s because they complete each other, and compliment has an i and an e just like nice because it’s nice to express praise and appreciation!

I hope this helps you keep track of which word to use when. Stay tuned for more tricky word pairs soon!

Hello all!

Today I’m starting a new series of posts to try to answer your burning questions about which word to use! English is a beautiful, descriptive language, but it also contains a whole lot of confusing word pairs. I’m hoping that in the weeks to come, I can help bring clarity to some of that confusion, so you’ll always know which word you’re really searching for.

I’m going to start with one of the most widely used–and misused–pairs: effect and affect. If you find these two words frustrating, rest assured that you’re not alone! Most people wander around never quite sure which is the verb and which is the noun. The reason none of us can seem to keep that straight is probably that they are actually both verbs and both nouns in certain cases. But the good news is that one is usually the noun and the other is usually the verb, so if you can remember that, you’ll be correct 98 percent of the time!

Generally, we use the words affect and effect when we’re talking about something causing something else. In these vast majority of cases, affect is the verb and effect is the noun. So, “One possible effect of global warming is climate change” and “Global warming might affect our planet by causing climate change.” One way to remember which is which is that affect has one “e,” just like the word verb, so affect is the verb. Whatever trick you find to work for you, if you can remember affect as a verb and effect as a noun, you’ll almost always be right.

Now, you might be wondering about those other cases, when affect becomes a noun and effect a verb. Both of those are quite rare, so feel free to ignore those cases and just focus on remembering the rule above! But if you want to know… We use effect as a verb to mean “to bring about an outcome”; it’s most common in the phrase “to effect change.” We use affect as a noun to talk about the mood that someone appears to have; this use is pretty much limited to psychology, to describe things like “he displayed a depressed affect.”

So, which word should you use? Affect (with its one “e”) as a verb and effect as a noun! Go forth, and conquer all your causal writing!

See you next time!