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

32

Hey, that or this?

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

James from engVid.

He's doing a common mistakecalled a "malapropism".

I don't know whatit means either.

It means word confusion.

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

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

the big word"malapropism", just know that

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

And that could be fora variety of reasons.

It can be because it'sa homophone, which

means it sounds thesame, but when you write

it down, they look different.

Or it can actually havea different meaning,

even though theykind of look the same.

So, today I have chosensix words, and we're

calling them pairsbecause usually the person

will make the mistake thinkingone word means the other.

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

And to make this lessonfun, because learning

English is hard, andyou're here to work,

but there's no reasonyou can't have a little

fun, I'm going tothrow in a fun fact for

you to help youremember these things.

Let's go to the board.

You might notice thefirst one says "action verb",

something is changingor making a difference,

versus "Batman v Superman".

We know who won that one, right?

Versus "what youget in the end".

This is a commonlyconfused pair of words,

with even native speakersmaking this mistake,

because they soundvery similar, it's a slight

difference in pronunciation,but how you're

supposed to usethem is very different.

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

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

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

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

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

you would say "Howis the medicine affecting

What change is happeningbecause they're taking the medicine?"

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

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

what's happeningwhen you get an effect.

Now, what about the otherword 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 ofsomething, we talk about the end result.

What was the end?

So, we say "How is themedicine affecting Victoria?"

And you can say "Theeffect 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 talkabout the end result

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

but when you wantto talk about the action

of something, how it'schanging, use "affect"

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'reforgetting 'affect' as a noun, which is a

psychological..."

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

But that's not for this lesson.

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

And as long as we canremember, I think ending

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

going to beat mostnative speakers.

The next one I'm goingto talk about is this one.

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

I feel like I'min a Tyson fight.

I wouldn't be in aTyson fight if he...

He didn't even fight.

He doesn't want to die.

The next one is "to experiencethe emotions of another person".

Well, that almostsounds the same.

You feel sorry...

Notice this one says "toexperience the emotions

of another person",that means feel them,

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

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

But what are thewords I'm talking about?

Because you're confused.

Now, if you knowthese words well, if you

weren't confused rightaway, you were like...

Clearly, this must be...

And if you were confused, don'tworry, you're in good company.

A lot of native speakers make thismistake with sympathy and empathy.

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

I used to love watching StarTrek with Lieutenant Deanna Troi.

"I am an empath.

I feel everything."

And I didn't know if she was, like, feelingsorry 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 havesaid this before in videos.

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

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

When I was younger,I played a lot of sports

and I never really hadany injuries or anything

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

Feel sorry for you."

It's not that I waslooking down on them,

but if you have neverfelt that kind of pain,

you don't know howto have empathy.

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

And it's the subject.

And this is important.

The subject feels...

Now, subject, James, basicgrammar, subject, object.

The subject feels sympathyfor the object, the other person.

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'show I felt because, I

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

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

And you're going to gohere, feeling sorry, right?

And you can see the pain.

Notice how I put "seethe pain", because you

don't feel it, you seeit, 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, Ihad to hold it in a sling,

this thing that holds itup, and if you touched

me, I was in great pain.

Now, I can see a persondown the street with

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

I know the painyou're going through."

Sympathy and empathyare not the same.

And even though, as Isaid, with empathy you

can have positiveexperiences, sympathy is

usually negative.

So, if you cankeep that in mind...

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

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

You feel them, too.

So, with empathy, youexperience the emotions;

sympathy, you can seethem, and you as a subject

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

Don't let people justhave sympathy for you,

because they'reusually looking this way.

Now, here's a fun fact.

Whoops, I misseda fun fact already.

When I started tellingyou about affect and

effect, I had fun factsfor you, like candies.

Something sweet.

The fun fact for effect...

And I'm sorry I'm goingback; that was my bad.

Have some sympathyfor me, please.

All right, so when welooked at affect and

effect, I talked to youabout, you know, effect

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

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

means "to make or do".

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

the affect, somethingis happening.

We're making or doing something.

Examples of words youmight know is "perfect".

When something'sperfect, it's perfect.

It's made with no mistakes.

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

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

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

and any word you seeat the end of that, now

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

G.I.

More than just English.

All right, so, to goingback to the fun fact

for sympathy andempathy, now that we know

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

experiencing theemotional pain of the person,

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

at our next funfact, which is "reek".

Fun fact, fun fact, fun fact.

English is comprisedof four languages; the

dramatic, the Latin, theGreek, and the French.

And one day we'll getinto how these all came

together to make thiswonderful language,

and so much confusionfor everybody studying it.

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

Well, it meanssuffering or feeling.

Someone issuffering, feeling pains.

So, you feel that.

And what is feeling?

Look, right there.

Experiencing the emotions.

Both are used here perfectly.

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

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

Apathy is away fromfeeling or suffering.

Close your eyes.

Think of those teenagers you seewalking down the street like that.

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

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

Nothing's cool inthe world, man."

They're apathetic; they'reaway 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 forall this work I'm doing.

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

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

to use your imaginationto understand it.

Versus come to aconclusion or an ending from

evidence - somethingyou can see - or thinking

with information.

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

In this case, the persondoesn't tell you directly.

You kind of have tomake a picture about it.

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

I'll give you an example.

The other day, Mr. Ecame to me, he was looking

at my pants and hewas saying, "Hmm, your

dryer must be verystrong because those pants

are getting smallerand 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?

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

is making - gettingmore and more powerful.

Dryers don't get more powerful.

He's saying the pants areshrinking because I'm expanding.

That's what he was implying.

So, to imply is touse your imagination.

They don't say it directly.

You have to visualizeyour pants going - and

you're like, nothing'schanging unless - you're

getting bigger.

Bad English, too.

So, how is thatdifferent from this word?

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

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

They will say, "Howwill you know?"

Unlike imply wherethey don't tell you, they

will say, "Well, Inoticed that you've been

complaining aboutyour pants getting tighter.

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

haven't been gettingany taller, but you are

getting wider, so I'mgoing to infer you're

getting fatter."

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

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

When you infer something,you have to have information.

You can say it directly.

And if you look reallycarefully, you're going

to see that "information"almost looks exactly

So even you nativespeakers, you can now take

that, put it in yourback pocket and go, "I

know somethingthat you don't know.

I know somethingyou don't know."

You'll never get it wrong again.

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

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

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

So what's the funfact for imply and infer?

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

They will actually useeach word or both words

interchangeably andthink, "I'm saying the

same thing", but nowyou know differently.

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

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

says about companiesin the US government

How are you inferring?"

But I will say to youI'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 youfor watching this lesson.

I hope you got a lotof information out of it.

It wasn't just aboutwords that are confused.

I wanted to give you amethod for making sure

you really understandit, and a little bit

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

for you to have somethingthat brings English

to life, as opposedto learned vocabulary.

I think that's kindof silly sometimes.

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

it becomes fun and interesting.

On that note, look outfor the second lesson

where you're goingto find out what this is

Thank you for watching.

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

to seeing you on thesecond part of this video.