Nouns

“Dwarves” vs. “Rooves”

Nouns, Plurals, Versus

I thought of these two words after learning recently that the singular form of one of them relates to Fannie Mae.

Problem:
One of these is not a proper word.

Explanation:
Fannie Mae — the U.S. Federal National Mortgage Association — has been in the news a lot recently, given the recent failures in the U.S. mortgage and banking industries.

I learned the other day that a “dwarf” in Fannie Mae lingo is the name given to a pool of mortgage-backed, Fannie Mae-issued securities with a maturity of 15 years.

As I wrote earlier this year, the plural form of the singular noun “roof” is “roofs” and never “rooves”.

In contrast, the plural form of the singular noun “dwarf” is either “dwarfs” — spelled D-W-A-R-F-S — or “dwarves” — spelled D-W-A-R-V-E-S.

This gives us the solution.

Solution:
“Dwarves” is a proper word (a plural form of the singular noun “dwarf”). “Rooves”, in contrast, is not a proper word.

“Affect” vs. “Effect”

Common English Blunders, Mispronunciations, Nouns, Verbs, Versus

I often see and hear mistakes with these two words.

Problem:
These words are spelled similarly but have different meanings.

Explanation:
The word “affect” is spelled A-F-F-E-C-T.

  • As a verb, the word “affect” means to act on or to produce a change in, as in “You can affect her attitude toward education.”
  • As a noun, the word “affect” means emotion or feeling, as in “The psychiatrist said that the patient’s affect could be a symptom of schizophrenia.”

The word “effect” is spelled E-F-F-E-C-T.

  • As a verb, the word “effect” means to bring about or make happen, as in “Many people believe that he cannot effect the change that he is promoting.”
  • As a noun, the word “effect” means consequence or result, as in “The effects of Hurricane Ike could be seen throughout Houston and Galveston.”

It is a common English blunder — at least in American English — to use one of these verbs as a substitute for the other one. It is also a common English blunder to use one of these nouns as a substitute for the other one.

I believe that mistaken interchanging of these two words is due to mispronunciations, which drive misspellings.

Solution:
Memorize the verb and noun definitions of these two words.

“It was a lot of work on everybody’s behalf.”

Hypercorrection, Nouns

I heard this two days ago on a TV program.

Problem:
The speaker said one thing but meant another.

Explanation:
When talking about a home-renovation project and the work performed by many people, the host of the HGTV program “Hammer Heads” said “It was a lot of work on everybody’s behalf.”

Doing something on somebody’s behalf means that one does something for that person.

So “everybody’s behalf” implies that several people benefited from the home-renovation work that the TV program documented.

However, only the two home owners benefited, and these two home owners certainly were not the “everybody” involved with the renovation.

The correct replacement in the sentence for the noun “behalf” is the noun “part”, given that everybody played a part in the renovation.

I believe that the TV host’s use of “behalf” where “part” was required is an example of a type of hypercorrection — choosing a longer, incorrect word in place of the shorter, correct word.

Solution:
“It was a lot of work on everybody’s part.”