Effect vs. affect

December 1, 2008 1:28 PM

Can't seem to get a handle on the difference between 'effect' and 'affect'.

Help me get this through my thick head! What's the proper way to use these words so that they mean what i want them to mean, specifically relating to a consequence or a cause. Yes, I've looked in the dictionary. I still don't get it.

posted by Jason and Laszlo to Writing & Language (26 answers total)

Basically, affect is a verb and effect is a noun. "The play affected me; it had an effect on me."

Now, yes, there are uses of affect that make it a noun, and you can use effect is a vert. But if you just stick to affect = verb, effect = noun, you'll do fine.
posted by Tomorrowful at 1:32 PM on December 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Effect would be, of course, a verb, and not a vert.
posted by Tomorrowful at 1:33 PM on December 1, 2008

The aarow affected the aardvark. The effect was eye-popping.
posted by starman at 1:35 PM on December 1, 2008

I've found this useful. Frankly, the whole page is a common reference tool for me. (scroll down briefly)
posted by wg at 1:36 PM on December 1, 2008

Grammar Girl on affect versus effect. Includes a helpful cartoon.
posted by grouse at 1:36 PM on December 1, 2008

You cause an effect; the consequences of which affects something else. Or, in a more verby form, you will take what you learn here and effect changes in your writing. This, in turn, will affect how people think of you.

It helps to look at the roots of the words. In biology efferent pathways go to something, afferent pathways come from something.

Just try and always use effect as a noun and affect as a verb. You sound pompous when you use effect as a verb.
posted by DCCooper at 1:37 PM on December 1, 2008

I think of special "FXs" as a noun and "F" sounds like "eff" to me rather than "a-ffect."
posted by k8t at 1:37 PM on December 1, 2008

Hmmm.... regarding that first link... the most useful phrase there might be this: "When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it." I didn't realize there was so much extraneous information there until I read it a second time.
posted by wg at 1:39 PM on December 1, 2008

I always remember it by reminding myself of "special effects" in movies.
posted by lizzicide at 1:39 PM on December 1, 2008

These are all good. There is one exception to the noun/verb rule: you may occasionally use effect as a verb, as in "to effect change." This is a sort of pretentious and unnecessary usage though, and just sort of confuses things!
posted by lunasol at 1:41 PM on December 1, 2008

You just have to memorize the different meanings of each word as verb and noun, I'm afraid.

To be complete, a counter-example sentence to that in the first comment, where the less-common uses of effect as a verb and affect as a noun are seen, would be "The play effected a change on my good opinion of the author; I responded negatively to its pretentious affect."

In short:

effect (n.), a change or reponse
effect (v.), to change something; requires a direct and indirect object: he effected a change in the process

affect (v.), to change something
affect (n.), an affectation; a pretension; artificiality
posted by aught at 1:44 PM on December 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

affect (n.) is also a technical term from psychology having to do with emotional response.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:49 PM on December 1, 2008

The only way I remember it is to use "raven." r - for no good reason - affect, verb, effect, noun.
posted by korej at 1:50 PM on December 1, 2008

Affect can also be a noun, used mostly in psychology circles. Affect is one's physical (usually facial) response to common emotions. An affect disorder is an abnormal (usually flat) response.
I think I remembered that correctly.
posted by Pennyblack at 1:52 PM on December 1, 2008

I pronounce the noun and verb forms of each of these words differently. Maybe it's just me, but effect (n) sound like "ehffect" where as effect (v) is a stronger first vowel, more like "eefect".

Simlarly affect the (v) is "uhfect" while affect (n) is "aafect" (aa is as in "bad").

I don't know if every speaker makes this distinction; but if people around you do, then you might try saying the sentence aloud- effect (n) and affect (v) sound very similar but the less common effect(v) and affect(n) seem to put more emphasis on the first vowel

Also I disagree with aught; effect (v) only requires a d.o.; an indirect one is dressing. I think a better definition for it is "to bring about".. which sort of leads you to ask what exactly is being brought about.
posted by nat at 1:59 PM on December 1, 2008

Alas, this is one of the very few true banes of The English Teacher's Existence, since both words exist in noun form and in verb form. There's really nothing for it but to memorize each one.

Affect as a verb: cause a change. "The weather affected the turnout on Election Day."

Affect as a noun: facial or body expression. "She has a very dull affect when she forgets to take her medication. Otherwise, she's quite lively."

Effect as a verb: create something new. "To effect a real transition from twentieth to twenty-first-century politics, we should throw the entire government out, and start from scratch."

Effect as a noun: something that is caused by something else. "The sonic boom had a lasting effect on my cat. Now she hates astronauts."

UNFORTUNATELY

One can affect (v) an effect (n): "I stumbled into my sister while she was painting her nails. I accidentally affected the elegant effect she was going for by spilling it on her gown."

AND

One can effect (v) an affect (n): "A surefire way to effect a transformation of a Palace Guard's historically solemn affect is to strip right in front of him."

IN CONCLUSION:

Good luck. There will be a quiz.
posted by tzikeh at 2:14 PM on December 1, 2008

effect (v.), to change something; requires a direct and indirect object: he effected a change in the process

No no no! In your example, you are not changing a change in the process. You are creating a change in the process. By effecting things, you bring them into existence.
posted by malp at 2:19 PM on December 1, 2008

Looking *just* at the difference in the verbs affect and effect, I've found it helpful to think of "effect" as meaning "bring about," whereas "affect" means to have an effect on. You'll see "affect" as a verb way way way way way more often than "effect." Because "to effect" is pompous, as others have mentioned.

So, for example:

This new rule will affect everyone.
versus
If you want to effect policy change, you'll need to get people on your side first.
posted by Stewriffic at 2:21 PM on December 1, 2008

I was taught to remember RAVEN: "Remember: Affect Verb, Effect Noun." But apparently that's not entirely true. Still, I'll never forget it.
posted by mattholomew at 2:36 PM on December 1, 2008

About 99% of the time, "effect" is a noun and "affect" is a verb.

Examples of "effect" as a noun:

"What kind of effect has the smoking ban had on the economy?"
"The movie had a huge emotional effect on me."
"This medicine can cause side effects."
"These special effects are great."

In all those cases, "effect" is some kind of thing(s) (maybe not a thing you can touch, and maybe a very vague or unknown set of things, but still something). A word that refers to a thing is a noun.

Examples of "affect" as a verb:

"How has the smoking ban affected the economy?"
"The movie emotionally affected me." (or: "The movie was very emotionally affecting.")
"This medicine can affect some patients in unexpected ways."

In all those cases, "affect" refers to doing something, which is why it's a verb. Notice that some of those sentences have the same meanings as the above sentences with "effect." While the sentence overall might mean the same thing, you need to focus very narrowly on what role the one word affect/effect has within the sentence.

But the other 1%-or-so of the time, it's reversed: "affect" can be a noun, and "effect" can be verb.

Rare instance where "affect" is a noun: a sort of academic psychological meaning: "Her affect was very sullen." "Affect" as a noun is not a very useful word since there are more familiar ways to express the same thing, like the word "demeanor."

Rare instance where "effect" is a verb: when it means bring about [something new]. For instance, "We need to effect a major change to our country's educational system." Note that this is not interchangeable with "affect" -- it would be awkward to say we need to "affect a change in the educational system," since "to affect" actually means "to change something that already exists."
posted by Jaltcoh at 2:51 PM on December 1, 2008

The effect of using words incorrectly will affect your chances of being understood.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 3:10 PM on December 1, 2008 [2 favorites]

Nthing that it's verb versus noun. Personally I remember it by "side effect", which is clearly a noun and which is commonplace enough that it's solidly pegged in my mind's eye as being with an "e".
posted by madmethods at 3:24 PM on December 1, 2008

Here's the way I learned it (seriously) as a music geek. My favorite Jam album is called Sound Affects. This is a play on words: the usual spelling of the term is, of course, sound effects, but title's pun evokes the idea that sound affects the listener -- i.e., that music makes you feel things or want to do things. Therefore affect is the verb; effect (as in sound effect) is the noun. (99% of the time.)
posted by scody at 4:54 PM on December 1, 2008

Has the weird and useless verb-noun rule confused you?

Affect = influence
Effect = result

Try to remember The Light Fantastic's trick. Or just use other words...
posted by Lesser Shrew at 7:21 PM on December 1, 2008

Simple: (A) = Affect, action (verb).

Leaving "effect" just a thing. Of course, it gets complicated when you want to "effect" change. But, once you remember the a=action, you more easily remember the one exception.
posted by General Malaise at 8:51 PM on December 1, 2008

Response by poster: wow, too many good tricks to mark a best answer, so thanks all!
posted by Jason and Laszlo at 1:36 PM on December 2, 2008