Posted yesterday at 6:00 p.m.
The name impact and the verb impact have gained a lot of ground recently. Always criticized by certain reference works, especially in the case of the verb, they are passing into use.
We can all the same regret that, like an invasive species, they cover, and end up making disappear, quantity of very interesting synonyms. We would benefit from not neglecting these equivalents, if only to vary – and enrich! – his vocabulary. Especially in writing, which must, as a general rule, be more careful than speaking.
The word is criticized when it is given, as in English, the meaning ofeffectofaffecting. The sources consulted offer many other terms, which are perhaps used too little at the moment: consequence, backlash, ripple effect, impact, scope, repercussion, impact, fallout.
The effects are being felt. Advertising has a clear influence on consumers. These new tax measures will have no impact on our budget. He will give a lecture on the economic repercussions of electronic commerce. The effect of the new law is beneficial. Suffer the aftermath of a disaster. Suffer the political fallout of a scandal.
Again, the verb impactwhich remains more criticized than the name impact, can be replaced very easily, if that is what you want to do. First, literally, by crash into : The space capsule hit the ground at more than 300 km/h.
Then, depending on the context, by the following verbs: concern, influence, to interest, to touch, to aim. Or by many expressions like: influence, have an effect on, make its effects felt on, be of importance for, have consequences on, have an impact on, have repercussions on, to affect, have an impact on, exert an influence on, Influence, weigh on, play a role in.
Bottleneck or bottleneck?
I have always heard and said “bottleneck”, but now I hear and read “bottleneck”. What’s the right word?
Response :
You can use one or the other. Some sources do not distinguish between the two for this phrase which designates, figuratively, a difficult passage, obstacles or difficulties that delay a process. The highway toll forms a bottleneck.
But books like Dictionary of the difficulties and pitfalls of the French language (Larousse) or Pitfalls and difficulties of the French language (Bordas) recommend to prefer bottleneck at bottleneck“which we sometimes hear in the relaxed register”.
The name bottleneck means, literally, a narrow corridor in the mountains or the narrow entrance to a port. He has already pointed to the narrow neck of a bottle just like neckwhich is still used in this sense today.