Affect, Effect
Choosing between affect and effect can be scary. Think of Edgar Allan Poe and his RAVEN: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun. You can't affect the creepy poem by reading it, but you can enjoy the effect of a talking bird.
In everyday speech, affect is a verb. There are several variations. 1. Produce a change in somebody/something, to have an influence on somebody/something:
2. Attack or infect somebody or a part of the body as a disease, make somebody ill:
3. Cause strong feelings of sadness, pity, despair, etc. in somebody:
4. Pretend to be feeling or thinking something, behave in a pretended way:
Effect is most commonly used as a noun meaning the result or impact of something, an outcome. If there's "a/an/the" in front of it, it's an effect. There are three variants to learn: 1. A change that somebody/something causes in somebody/something else, a result or influence:
2. A particular look, sound or impression that somebody creates:
3. Personal possessions, belongings (used in the plural):
Most of the time, you'll want affect as a verb meaning to influence something and effect for the something that was influenced. The difference between affect and effect is so slippery that some people have started using "impact" as a verb instead. Another trick is to remember that affect comes first alphabetically, and an action (to affect) has to occur before you can have a result (an effect). (Description from Vocabulary.com and MyEnglishTeacher.eu) |