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seriously affected — badly influenced or harmed

collocationB2IELTS 5+neutralcommon

To be strongly and negatively influenced or harmed by something.

Say it like a native

Textbook The region was detrimentally impacted by the drought.

Native The region was seriously affected by the drought.

Natural; 'detrimentally impacted' is report jargon.

Pattern: be seriously affected (by something)

In use

  • Many small businesses were seriously affected by the sudden changes in the law.health
  • During the pandemic, I think students were seriously affected because they couldn't attend classes in person and had to adapt to online learning.IELTS speaking

Common mistake

✗ Many people were serious affected.

✓ Many people were seriously affected.

Adverb 'seriously', not 'serious', before the verb.

Common collocations

  • seriously affected by — by, badly, most, worst

Don't confuse it

Compare with 'slightly affected', which means the impact is small.

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