Affect vs.Effect How to Choose the Right Word

The words affect and effect are often confused because they sound alike and have related meanings, although theyre used differently. In most cases, affect is a verb and effect is a noun. How to Use Affect As a verb, affect has several meanings. The first and most common is, to influence, create a change, or alter something or someone. Affect also means to pretend to feel something (to affect sadness). In its original sense in Middle French, affecter meant to have a sad or unfortunate impression on, and when affect stands unmodified, it does typically mean to sadden. In psychology and psychiatry, the term affect (with stress on the first syllable) is also a noun with the technical meaning an expressed or observed emotional response. However, this term seldom appears in nontechnical writing. How to Use Effect Effect, on the other hand, is usually a noun meaning the result or consequence of some action or event. The noun effect also means something thats intended to create a particular impression or feeling, as in the effect of flying. And it can mean to make operative, as in the law will take effect in January 2022, as well as to have an operative influence on, as its used in side effect or aftereffect. In addition, it may function as part of a well-established compound noun such as Doppler effect or greenhouse effect. The main confusion happens when effect is used as a verb, meaning to cause. The difference is the strength of the verbs: to affect change means to have an impact on change, while to effect change means to create it. Examples The following are examples of when you might use the verb affect to mean influence: The heat affected my ability to think clearly.The sportsman was not affected by the crowds booing in the stadium.Adverse publicity affected the outcome of the election.Volcanoes can temporarily affect the quality of the atmosphere. Affect can also mean to put on or assume: Jane affected disdain for Pavel that she did not, in fact, feel.When you attend parties at the White House, you should affect an air of cool sophistication. Use the noun effect to describe an outcome or result: The extreme heat had a devastating effect on my garden.The effects of the Black Death included the reduction of the population of Europe.One side effect of the medication is drowsiness. Use the verb effect to mean to create, make happen or bring about: If you want to effect change in Washington, you have to vote.It is time to effect  a revolution in table manners.It looks to me as if we have effected a tactical surprise. How to Remember the Difference The main difference between the most common uses of affect and effect is the part of speech. As Brian Klems points out in a Writers Digest column, affect is an action, and both words begin with an a; an effect is the end result of an action, and both begin with an e. Sources Affect; effect. The Chicago Manual of Style. 16th ed., University of Chicago Press, 2010, p. 264.Fogarty, Mignon. Affect Versus Effect. Grammar Girls 101 Misused Words Youll Never Confuse Again. New York: St. Martins Griffin, 2011. p. 12.Klems, Brian A. Affect vs. Effect. The Writers Dig, 22 Jan. 2013.