Meaning & use
positively influence
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Meaning
verbtransitive
to have a good or helpful effect on someone or something
Grammar: Takes an object: 'positively influence someone'. The adverb can also be placed after the object: 'influence someone positively'.
Patterns
- positively influence someone
- positively influence something
- influence someone positively
A good teacher can positively influence a student's entire life.
The new policy is expected to positively influence the local economy.
Her speech positively influenced many young people to volunteer.
Word forms
| third person singular | positively influences |
|---|---|
| past tense | positively influenced |
| past participle | positively influenced |
| -ing form | positively influencing |
Common combinations
- positively influence someone's life
- Mentors can positively influence a young person's life.
- positively influence the outcome
- Early treatment can positively influence the outcome of the disease.
- positively influence behavior
- Rewards positively influence employee behavior.
- positively influence decision-making
- Good data can positively influence decision-making.
Synonyms and how they differ
- benefit
- Benefit means to be useful or helpful to someone; positively influence emphasizes the process of affecting someone in a good way, not just the result.
- improve
- Improve means to make something better; positively influence is broader and can mean having a good effect without necessarily making something better.
- shape
- Shape means to have a strong influence on the development of something; positively influence is more specific about the good direction of that effect.
Opposites
Commonly confused: positively influence or positively impact?
positively influence vs positively impact
'Positively impact' is similar but more common in business jargon; 'positively influence' is slightly more formal and often used about people or decisions.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'positively influence' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Influence' is a transitive verb and takes a direct object without a preposition. 'Influenced on' is incorrect; 'influenced to' would mean she caused the team to do something, which is not the same meaning. 'Influenced for' is not used.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “positively influence”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.