Whats the difference between affect and effect?

Question

My english teacher keeps taking off a ton of points on my papers because i use the wrong one. (Affect or effect). Could you explain to me whats the difference? Thanks!
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Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Affect is a verb, meaning to cause something to happen. Effect is a noun, which is the result of having happened. Here are two sentences that illustrate:

Mary wondered if her tutoring of John would beneficially affect his grades. ( "Affect" to cause his grades to improve --Verb)

John got an A on his exam, due to the positive effect of Mary's tutoring. ("Effect" the positive result of Mary's tutoring -- Noun)

Lots of people confuse those two words. I hope this helps to clarify.

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Asker's Comment:

Thanks so much. This really helped alot.

Answer 2

affect is what something can do to something else
effect is the result of a cause

Answer 3

Generally speaking, affect is a verb and effect is a
noun. When you affect something, you produce an effect on it. Even in the passive voice, something would be
affected, not effected.

Answer 4

affect is a verb and effect is a noun

Answer 5

You use affect as a verb. Effect is a noun.

For example:
Your actions affected me in a bad way.

Your actions had a bad effect on me.
or: This particular effect was very horrible.

Answer 6

affect means 'have an effect upon'
for example; 'will the new rules affect me'


effect means 'a phenomenon that follows and is caused by some previous phenomenon'
for example; the magnetic effect was greater when the rod was length wise.

Source(s):

wordweb

Answer 7

AFFECT is to have an impact on someone.
EFFECT is a result.

Source(s):

My wonderful mind!

Answer 8

affect or effect?

In general use, affect is only used as a verb, whereas effect is commonly used as a noun and only in formal contexts as a verb. What causes confusion is that they have very similar pronunciations and closely related meanings. If one thing affects [acts upon] another, it has an effect on it [causes it to change]. Notice also that you can affect [cause a change in] people as well as things, but you can only effect [bring about] things such as changes: The election has affected our entire society, for it has effected major changes in the government.The bad weather has a bad effect [not affect] on him.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/d…

http://www.search.com/search?q=affect+vs…

Answer 9

I always use the rule of thumb that an "affect" is a verb...'to affect'
and "effect" is a noun...'an effect'
a sound effect is a cool sound resulting from something affecting the normal sound.