علت و نتیجه

Lesson 40 – Cause & Effect

The word “cause” is primarily used with negative results: a storm can cause damage, a mechanical defect can cause a problem, unclear instructions can cause confusion, a political scandal can cause an uproar (a strong negative reaction/manifestation from the public), a high-risk sport can cause injury, and an infection in a hospital can cause death.

You can describe something as cause for concern or cause for alarm – meaning a reason for concern or alarm. For example, “The growing number of teenagers dropping out of school is cause for concern.” The word “alarm” is a little stronger and more urgent: “The rapid spread of the virus is cause for alarm.” One of the only positive collocations with “cause” is cause for celebration: “The opening of the new school was cause for celebration in the community.”

When analyzing a problem, you can identify the main/primary cause of the issue – but keep in mind that there may be hidden/underlying causes as well. The deepest or most fundamental cause is sometimes called the root cause.

Interestingly, we do not use the verb “cause” together with “effect.” Instead, we say that something has an effect – for example, “Television has a strong effect on public opinion.” Another way to say “a strong effect” is the expression a significant impact or a profound impact.

There are many different ways to describe effects:

short-term vs. long-term effects – the time of the effect

visible effects vs. subtle effects – whether or not the effects are obvious

powerful effect vs. minimal/negligible effect – how strong the effect was

beneficial effect vs. adverse effect – to describe positive and negative effects

main effect vs. side effect – to describe the primary effect or an additional effect Something can also have/produce results – the preliminary results are the early ones, and after more time passes, you’ll get the final results. Results that obviously exist and can be proved are called concrete/tangible results, and a result that is impossible to avoid is an inevitable result. Results can also be direct or indirect, and the result that you want is called the desired result.

One word that is similar to “result” is “outcome” – it describes a resulting situation. You can try to guess the likely/probable outcome – the logical outcome is the result you would expect, and an unexpected outcome is one you didn’t predict.