AFFECT or EFFECT? Infer or Imply? Sympathy or Empathy?

Hey, that or this?

First of all, it's "this" or "that".

Hi.

James from engVid.

He's doing a common mistake called a "malapropism".

What?

malapropism?

Don't worry.

I don't know what it means either.

It means...

Really?

It means word confusion.

It's when we use the wrong word in a different situation.

In this case-right?-so you don't need to know

the big word "malapropism", just know that

you're using a word that you think means this, but it may not.

And that could be for a variety of reasons.

It can be because it's a homophone, which

means it sounds the same, but when you write

it down, they look different.

Or it can actually have a different meaning,

even though they kind of look the same.

Right?

So, today I have chosen six words, and we're

calling them pairs because usually the person

will make the mistake thinking one word means the other.

But I'm going to try and show you in a way that you won't make that mistake.

Okay?

And to make this lesson fun, because learning

English is hard, and you're here to work,

but there's no reason you can't have a little

fun, I'm going to throw in a fun fact for

you to help you remember these things.

Are you ready?

Let's go to the board.

You might notice the first one says "action verb",

something is changing or making a difference,

versus "Batman v Superman".

We know who won that one, right?

Versus "what you get in the end".

This is a commonly confused pair of words,

with even native speakers making this mistake,

because they sound very similar, it's a slight

difference in pronunciation, but how you're

supposed to use them is very different.

Okay?

And the first difference we can see is one is a verb and one is a noun.

Okay?

And I'm going to put it here and I'm going to help you with it, because it's going to

start with "a", and this is "effect".

When you use this word, you want to show a difference or a change.

So, if someone's using "medicine", for instance,

you would say "How is the medicine affecting

them?

What change is happening because they're taking the medicine?"

And I've done "a" and "a" so you can remember,

think of a verb and think of an action, that's

what's happening when you get an effect.

Now, what about the other word that people confuse it?

Ah, they almost look so much the same, that's the problem, and that's "effect".

When we talk about the effect of something, we talk about the end result.

What was the end?

So, we say "How is the medicine affecting Victoria?"

And you can say "The effect was she lost her foot."

That's the end.

Do-do-dum-dum-psh.

Another nice ending, but that's the effect, and we can remember that by looking at the

letter "e" for "effect".

So, if you want to talk about the end result

of something, use "effect", which is a noun,

but when you want to talk about the action

of something, how it's changing, use "affect"

with the "a".

All right.

I already know some of you guys out there, you keyboard warriors, "James, there's time

so 'effect' can be a verb, too, and you're forgetting 'affect' as a noun, which is a

psychological..."

I don't care.

I talk...

I'm talking about how we normally use it, and I just told you I know.

Okay?

Okay.

But that's not for this lesson.

I'm talking about, basically, how it's used and misused.

And as long as we can remember, I think ending

for "effect" and "affect" with "action", you're

going to beat most native speakers.

Cool?

All right.

All right.

The next one I'm going to talk about is this one.

"The subject can see the pain in the other person and feel sorry for them", versus...

I feel like I'm in a Tyson fight.

I wouldn't be in a Tyson fight if he...

He out.

He didn't even fight.

He's leaving.

He doesn't want to die.

Sorry.

Serious.

Okay.

Okay.

The next one is "to experience the emotions of another person".

Well, that almost sounds the same.

You feel sorry...

Noo.

Notice this one says "to experience the emotions

of another person", that means feel them,

while this one says "feel sorry for the person who's in pain".

That's not the same, because you can experience them having a good emotion.

Right?

But what are the words I'm talking about?

Because you're confused.

Now, if you know these words well, if you

weren't confused right away, you were like...

Ugh.

Clearly, this must be...

And if you were confused, don't worry, you're in good company.

A lot of native speakers make this mistake with sympathy and empathy.

They think because they feel they're the same words, or they're confused.

I used to love watching Star Trek with Lieutenant Deanna Troi.

"I am an empath.

I feel...

I feel everything."

And I didn't know if she was, like, feeling sorry for them, because sometimes she goes,

"His pain is great, Captain.

I feel so bad."

Or, "Oh, he's feeling so good."

A little secret, I might have said this before in videos.

I had zero empathy for a lot of people for a lot of my life when it came to pain.

Not because I'm a bad guy, and this is the confusion of the words.

When I was younger, I played a lot of sports

and I never really had any injuries or anything

that hurt.

So, when I would see someone with a broken arm or a leg, I'd go, "Oh, too bad, buddy.

Must hurt.

Sorry.

Feel sorry for you."

It's not that I was looking down on them,

but if you have never felt that kind of pain,

you don't know how to have empathy.

You can feel sorry for them, and this is why we've got the "s".

See this?

Sympathy.

And it's the subject.

The subject.

And this is important.

The subject feels...

Now, subject, James, basic grammar, subject, object.

The subject feels sympathy for the object, the other person.

Right?

And even if you go, "Well, feel sympathy for

me, I'm in pain", you're still asking me,

the subject, to feel for you.

There is not me taking your emotion in, I'm just going, "Yeah, feel bad for you."

And honestly, that's how I felt because, I

mean, I played sports, I got hurt and injured,

but nothing bad, so I really couldn't have anything but sympathy for people who were

injured.

And you're going to go here, feeling sorry, right?

And you can see the pain.

Notice how I put "see the pain", because you

don't feel it, you see it, you're like, "Oh,

that would be bad.

I have sympathy for you."

It's hard to have empathy.

And then one day, I tore my shoulder.

One year, my arm, I had to hold it in a sling,

this thing that holds it up, and if you touched

me, I was in great pain.

Now, I can see a person down the street with

a sling and go, "Oh, oh, my heart feels for

you.

I know the pain you're going through."

Sympathy and empathy are not the same.

And even though, as I said, with empathy you

can have positive experiences, sympathy is

usually negative.

So, if you can keep that in mind...

Oh, and you're going to say, "James, if S is for sympathy, what about empathy?"

Well, look, my friend, empathy, you experience the emotions.

You feel them, too.

Cool?

So, with empathy, you experience the emotions;

sympathy, you can see them, and you as a subject

feel sorry for them, but you're not feeling it.

Don't let people just have sympathy for you,

because they're usually looking this way.

Okay?

Now, here's a fun fact.

Whoops, I missed a fun fact already.

What?

Wait a minute.

When I started telling you about affect and

effect, I had fun facts for you, like candies.

Something sweet.

The fun fact for effect...

And I'm sorry I'm going back; that was my bad.

Have some sympathy for me, please.

All right.

All right, so when we looked at affect and

effect, I talked to you about, you know, effect

is the end and it's an action; affect is "a" for action.

What I forgot to tell you about, and this is my fun facts over here, "fect" in Latin

means "to make or do".

So, when we're talking about the effect-right?-and

the affect, something is happening.

Right?

We're making or doing something.

Examples of words you might know is "perfect".

When you...

When something's perfect, it's perfect.

What's that?

It's made with no mistakes.

And when you have a defect, there's something wrong with it.

That's a fun fact that we talk about, "a" and "e".

Yeah?

Just remember, "fect" means "make or do",

and any word you see at the end of that, now

you know something new, and knowing is half the battle.

G.I.

Joe.

Yeah.

More than just English.

All right, so, to going back to the fun fact

for sympathy and empathy, now that we know

sympathy is for a subject, seeing the pain and feeling sorry, and empathy is actually

experiencing the emotional pain of the person,

we can go over here, and we're going to look

at our next fun fact, which is "reek".

Fun fact, fun fact, fun fact.

English is comprised of four languages; the

dramatic, the Latin, the Greek, and the French.

And one day we'll get into how these all came

together to make this wonderful language,

and so much confusion for everybody studying it.

But you'll notice "pathy", and what does "pathy" mean?

Well, it means suffering or feeling.

Whoa.

What is sorry?

Suffering.

Suffering.

Someone is suffering, feeling pains.

Right?

So, you feel that.

And what is feeling?

Look, right there.

Experiencing the emotions.

Both are used here perfectly.

Now, some of you are going to say, "What is apathy?"

Well, my friends, this is why we have fun facts; they're bonuses.

Apathy is away from feeling or suffering.

What?

Okay.

Close your eyes.

Think of those teenagers you see walking down the street like that.

Well, keep your eyes open or you won't be able to see me, but imagine.

You know, the kid walking down the street like this, "Man, everything sucks, man.

Nothing's cool in the world, man."

They're apathetic; they're away from emotions.

They're almost seemingly dead.

So, when someone's apathetic, they're away from emotions.

That's a bonus word.

I need a bonus for all this work I'm doing.

Okay?

Okay.

Okay.

Now, our final one - final - something versus something.

What is it?

Well, sometimes people will say something or to say something indirectly, so you have

to use your imagination to understand it.

Okay?

Versus come to a conclusion or an ending from

evidence - something you can see - or thinking

with information.

They may seem similar, but they're very, very different.

In this case, the person doesn't tell you directly.

You kind of have to make a picture about it.

You may not have information directly showing it, but you make a picture.

I'll give you an example.

The other day, Mr. E came to me, he was looking

at my pants and he was saying, "Hmm, your

dryer must be very strong because those pants

are getting smaller and smaller every day."

And he looked and walked away.

He was saying, "I'm getting fat.

I couldn't believe it."

Now, did he say it?

No.

But he said the dryer, which doesn't change,

is making - getting more and more powerful.

Dryers don't get more powerful.

He's saying the pants are shrinking because I'm expanding.

That's what he was implying.

Right?

So, to imply is to use your imagination.

They don't say it directly.

You have to visualize your pants going - and

you're like, nothing's changing unless - you're

getting bigger.

Evil mouse.

Not mouse.

Evil worm.

That or this.

Bad English, too.

So, how is that different from this word?

Well, when you infer something - and that's the word we're looking for, "infer" - you

actually will use information to make a conclusion, and you can give it to someone.

They will say, "How will you know?"

Unlike imply where they don't tell you, they

will say, "Well, I noticed that you've been

complaining about your pants getting tighter.

I've noticed you've been eating more and more doughnuts, and I've noticed that you

haven't been getting any taller, but you are

getting wider, so I'm going to infer you're

getting fatter."

It's true.

It's an inference, he's inferred it through different types of information.

And here's the easy way to remember this one, to know the difference.

When you infer something, you have to have information.

You can say it directly.

And if you look really carefully, you're going

to see that "information" almost looks exactly

like "infer".

Okay?

So even you native speakers, you can now take

that, put it in your back pocket and go, "I

know something that you don't know.

I know something you don't know."

You'll never get it wrong again.

Right?

"Infer" looks like "information", and you need information to make that conclusion.

You can't just say something, and you can be direct.

While with imply, you use your imagination to give them the information.

So what's the fun fact for imply and infer?

Well, a lot of native speakers don't even know there's a difference.

They will actually use each word or both words

interchangeably and think, "I'm saying the

same thing", but now you know differently.

And another fun, fun fact, this is for another lesson.

That's right.

In case you notice, you go, "But James, this

says about companies in the US government

and Apple.

How are you inferring?"

I'm not.

But I will say to you I'm inferring that I

have a second lesson, a part two to this that

I want you to watch.

And how will you know?

It's a different lesson.

Well, different colours, different saying.

So anyway, thank you for watching this lesson.

I hope you got a lot of information out of it.

It wasn't just about words that are confused.

I wanted to give you a method for making sure

you really understand it, and a little bit

more information because, you know, you're here, we're working together, and it's nice

for you to have something that brings English

to life, as opposed to learned vocabulary.

I think that's kind of silly sometimes.

But once you have a better understanding of it, a greater perspective of the language,

it becomes fun and interesting.

On that note, look out for the second lesson

where you're going to find out what this is

about.

Okay?

Thank you for watching.

Don't forget to subscribe-right?-somewhere in the box around here, and I look forward

to seeing you on the second part of this video.

Ciao.