Affect or Effect?
Which one is proper in which instances? Example:
A:: The affects of nightly news on public opinion were monstrous
B::The effects of nightly news on public opinion were monstrous
Which is correct in this instance? Is there a general rule of thumb I can use to remember when to use which one?
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18 Answers
one is a verb and one is a noun
Effects
The news had a profound effect on the viewers.
The viewers were affected by the news.
B is correct.
Affect is something one thing does to another. Ex: The weather affected my mood.
Effect is the outcome of something. Ex: The effect of adding the second chemical was an explosion.
Can you believe this has been asked twice before?
Here and here
Affect is a verb, yeah, but I’ve also seen effected, as in, “She effected a change in department policy”. Effected (the verb) is when you have caused or brought about a change, and it’s only subtly different from affected, which is defined as “having an effect on”.
What I know is that affect is usually a verb, rarely a noun (“the affects of the tsunami”). Effect is often a noun and sometimes (but very rarely) a verb. In that case, if you can replace effected with “brought about” and the sentence still make sense, then it works.
Both words can be both noun and verb.
However, the normal usage of “effect” is as a noun:
One of the effects of the flood was looting in the city center.
(As a verb it means “to cause to happen”. So you could see it used—rarely but correctly—in a sentence such as: The jack effected the lifting of the car.)
Affect is normally used as a verb, as in:
The flood badly affected the ability of the police to control crime in the city center.
(As a noun, one of the more common usages of “affect”—pronounced AFF ect in this case—is a psychological aspect of a person, sort of like a role he or she plays: His affect was flat and unresponsive.)
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@EdMayhew Dictionaries don’t tell you whether or not you should use a word in an instance. What would you prefer I ask?
It surely depends on the way you ask the question too.
@PacificToast Bad day yesterday, sorry for being an arse. I’m not proud
I’m not going to let the effect of this interesting question affect me! Lol.
@EdMayhew It’s O.K. I can understand a bad day situation.
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