What Is The Difference Between Effect And Affect?

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Your search is over. Here you will find the difference between affect and effect is clear and simple words and your confusion will be cleared.

In grammatical terms, affect is a verb that represents an action, means change, or has an impact. Whereas effect is a noun that means an outcome, result, or consequence. Most people use it wrongly in phrases. Both word’s effect and affect are pronounced but actually, they are different parts of speech. People pronounce it like a homophone, as they sound alike. Son/sun, cell/sell, sail/sale are some identical examples. But the difference is very clear so it must be used correctly while writing. 

While writing considers basic differences, otherwise it can confuse the reader.

Affect As A Verb:

Affect as a verb refers to change something, influence on something. For example;

  1. An earthquake affected many people.
  2. Her performance is affected by her daily personal conflicts.
  3. Zara’s sleep was affected by the cries of the neighbor’s baby.
  4. The cold weather affected the crops.
  5. Sad music deeply affected her. 

Effect As A Noun:

Effect as a noun refers to change that is influenced by some other cause or an event; a result or a consequence. It means that a change has occurred. For example;

  1. The effect of the earthquake was destructive and lifelong.
  2.  This dose of medicine will effect after the next 10 minutes.
  3.  Her big achievement can have an effect on her later performance.
  4. Her sunburn was an effect of continuous exposure to the sun. 

In some sentences, both words are used simultaneously according to their meaning. Here is a trick for you all to memorize, a very common acronym used to remember the meaning of affect and effect. It’s raven!

R: Remember

A: Affect is

V: Verb

E: Effect is

N: Noun

Both of these words are used as a verb and as a noun simultaneously, this duo can even confuse any experienced writer into a spiral of uncertainty!

Effect As A Verb:

Effect is not only used as a noun rather as a verb in many places. Effect as a verb means; to cause, to bring about, cause something to happen or come into being. For example; the embargo effected oil prices, which means that embargo brought about oil prices. The new boss is bound to effect positive changes in the office.

Affect As A Noun:

‘Affect’ on the other hand can also be perceived as a noun, where it is used to express an emotion in a psychological context i.e.

  1. A sad affect can be a symptom of any psychological disorder like depression.
  2. The psychologist noticed the patient’s blank affect and eventually referred him to a psychiatrist to prescribe depression medicine.

This is an example where affect is used as a noun. Her facial expressions had a flat effect, which shows another example where affect is used as a noun.

The result of both these words on a word counter is the same. Both these words consist of 6 characters but the meaning is different. The difference between meaning and use between both of them is clear, it might help you to make the right differences while selecting any of the above words. You just need to know, whether you are expressing an action or a noun!