What's The Difference? AFFECT vs EFFECT

Affect and Effect: two of the most commonly confused words in English. The intended effect of this post is to affect a positive change in your use of these two misunderstood words😆!

So...

What's The Difference?

Look at this infographic from Dara Rochlin Book Doctor's "Wordless Wednesday"

Simply...

Affect is a verb.

to influence or bring about a change

Effect is a noun.

the result or consequence of an action

Unlike many words, the suffixes of these two words don't help you determine which one is a verb and which is a noun. If you remember the basic subject - verb - object structure, you can decide which word to use. Please read these example sentences.

Alcohol affects your sense of balance.

noun        verb                object

We don't know the effects of the new drug.

 subject  verb          noun          object

Effect is a noun. Nouns commonly have articles (a, an, the) or demonstratives (this, that, those, these), and adjectives (special effects, side effects, etc) before them.  

The special effects in Star Wars look very simple now.

What are the effects of coffee?

Affect is a verb. Verbs (of action) often have adverbs (negatively affects , barely affects) and the preposition "to" (to affect a change in government police).

Drinking too much strongly affects my sense of balance. 

Jon hopes to affect a positive change in his health by eating more veggies.

Exercises

1/ Try the following quizzes below from Grammar Book.

Effect vs Affect: Quiz 1

Effect vs Affect: Quiz 2

2/  Complete the sentences by writing affect or effect in the blanks. 

One of the _______ of the flu virus is vomiting.

How does the new tobacco sales tax _______ me?

 

 

 

VPNs (virtual private networks) protect your privacy, 

but negatively _______ your brower's speed. 

I'd say the _______ of the new management team are positive. Sales are up.