I’ve just returned from Myrtle Beach, where I spent a week sitting under an umbrella and contemplating grammar. It’s what I do.
There’s a sign near the hot tub in our hotel. It says “Hot water and chlorine can effect the fabrics of some bathing suit materials. We cannot be held responsible for this.”
Wait, what? A professionally made, permanent sign on the wall at a beach front hotel has fallen victim to the homonyms? It just figures that I’d be staying at that hotel.
“Effect” is a noun. It’s the result of something, as in “cause and effect.”
“Affect” is a verb. Hot water and chlorine can affect some fabrics and cause them to fade. The fading would be the effect.
It really upsets me when I see signs with mistakes like this. If it was a one man job, it’d be understandable, but a person had to decide what went on the sign. The sign had to be ordered, the sign had to be made, the sign had to be purchased and hung on the wall, and the sign has been hanging there for years. The owner of the hotel stands right there, every day, in order to make sure everyone in the neighboring lazy river uses a tube. Why hasn’t anything been done about this sign? It’s wrong, oh so very wrong.
