What is an easy, no fail way to remember the difference between "effect" and "affect", and when to use them?

When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it.

I memorized this in school & it always helped me.

@netgrrl so affect is a verb, and effect is a noun?

Both words have a couple of different meanings.

But for the purposes of what you need to know here, yes.

This might help as well.

link

(Effect is also a verb, with another meaning: to bring about or cause. For instance, you can effect a solution to a problem.)

I am MORE confused now…..

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

It is towards the bottom.

Affect is primarily used as a verb.
It means to alter the feelings of or change the mental state of something or someone; to influence; to change something or someone in some way.
As far as, to alter the feelings of someone, think of the word affection which is a feeling in itself.
Here’s an example of affect in a couple of sentences regarding this definition.
I will affect you with my passionate speech.
I wonder how the election will affect our course of history.
The movie affected her so deeply, it brought tears to her eyes.

Effect is primarily used as a noun.
It generally refers to the result of something, or the power something might have in order to get that specific result.
Now, here’s where it gets tricky. I can use this word in some of the same sentences as above.
The election will have a profound effect on the course of history.
The effect of the movie, brought tears to her eyes.
(To remember it as a noun, think of the phrase “special effects” used in movies.)

I know it all looks and sounds the same, but do you see how one is used as a verb and the other is used as a noun?

Now, very rarely, effect is used as a verb and affect is used as a noun.
Here’s some examples:
Johnson said the cutbacks were designed to effect basic economies for the company.
(I’ve personally come to find that if you can use effect as a verb, just replace it with a different word entirely.)
Affect as a noun is only used as a psychological term that refers to facial expression and/or emotional response.
A person suffering from catatonia is said to have a ‘flat affect’.

I hope this helps,
If not, ask her.

Just remember “effect” is a noun. That should do it.

I’m so glad you asked this question! I’ve struggled with this forever! Using effect as a verb, could effect and cause be synonyms? As in “He effected a change in the attitude of the school board.” I think so. Am I right?

Try to see effect as somthing that happens due to outside forces; wet pavement will effect the handling of a car. And affect is internal, the object or thing being played against; wet payment affected the way I could drive the car.

When a gorgeous women approaches me it has a strange effect,I tend to affect a cheesy grin.

This seems like a Fluther FAQ. Okay, I’m trying to come up with a really funny mnemonic hook. How about this? Here’s the E-HOOK

England’s economic effects ensue extraordinary environmental engineering efforts

And the A-HOOK

America affects all aspects of advertising.

Memorizing funny sentences can sometimes be easier than memorizing rules or definitions.

Jeruba,

Do you have a good cocise way of discriminating between the two?

Ok so would I be correct in saying : The drug has an effect which affects the patient’s mood.

So the effect is what does the affecting?

That is it, right?

It’s more complicated than that because “effect” is used as a verb too. I think one takes a direct object and one doesn’t but I’m not quite sure which. Jeruba will know.

This one always confuses me too. The following article from Grammar Girl is the best explanation I’ve ever found:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/affect-versus-effect.aspx

I’ve also got a book called Big Elephants Are Useful, which I’m sure contains a useful way to remember when you should use one word over the other. I’ll take a look when I’m back at my bookshelf.

It’s easy to remember for me because “effect” is a Dutch word but “affect” is not.

@Fyrius are you a Blof fan?

@Kayak8
I like Bløf, but I wouldn’t count myself among their fans.

An effect is a thing. What the action did.
Affect is an action. A is for action, E is for the action’s end.

@janbb: Wasn’t Cocise a famous Chiricahua Apache Chief? He had a lovely affect, which effected a change in my personality when I was in the Chiricahua Wilderness.

Right, just checked “Big Elephants are Useful” and it has a good mnemonic in it for this:

“To Remember when you use affect or effect
Raven – Remember, Affect Verb, Effect Noun”

This book is great, full of lots of little tricks like this one. Author is S J Hartland and ISBN is 978 19030 56288 for those interested in getting a copy.

As Jeruba indicated above, Effect can be a verb. Affect is used in psychology circles (as a noun) to describe someone’s persona as in “His affect was flat.”

Ah, forget all the advice. Simply look them up in the dictionary. I have found that to be a very effective method.