Affection and affectation
These words are often confused.
Affection means love, fondness, emotional attachment, tenderness or warmth.
- She feels great affection for her parents.
Affection can also mean sickness, illness or disease.
He died of a consumptive affection.
Affectation means pretence, sham or false mannerism.
- He affected a Canadian accent.
To affect is to make a pretense of.
- She is from Canada but she affects a strong British accent.
Affluent and effluent
These words are often confused.
Affluent means rich, wealthy, prosperous, well-off etc.
- She married an affluent widower.
- People living in affluent societies are not always happy.
Effluent means liquid waste discharged into a river.
- The effluent stream has polluted water in the nearby wells as well.
Exercise
Complete the following sentences using appropriate words.
1. Her finishing-school accent is just an ………………….. (affection / affectation)
2. Wealth and fame has made him so ………………. that I no longer like him. (affected / effected)
3. The two colleges have a strong …………………, sometimes sharing faculty. (affinity / affiliation)
4. There is a close ……………….. between lemons and limes. (amity / affinity)
5. In a truly ……………….. society, there is more than enough for all. (affluent / effluent)
Answers
1. Her finishing-school accent is just an affectation.
2. Wealth and fame has made him so affected that I no longer like him.
3. The two colleges have a strong affiliation, sometimes sharing faculty.
4. There is a close affinity between lemons and limes.
5. In a truly affluent society, there is more than enough for all.
