The difference between "effect" and "affect"

tricky indeed...

first of all, affect is always a verb. it means to bring on or cause a change, or to cause emotion, to provoke feelings (good or bad). it can also mean to adopt a false characteristic.

examples:
many people drive dangerously, but this does not affect me, since i don't even have a car. (affect means there is no effect to the cause - no relation between the bad drivers and myself)

i cried when i saw the film "shindler's list". the film affected me deeply. (it touched me, it made me cry.)

effect can be either a noun or a verb. as a noun, it means the result of something (cause and effect).

he affected a british accent even though everyone knew he was american.

ex:
unemployed workers are a direct effect of factory closures.

as a verb, it means the same thing as the verb "effectuate", which means to bring about, to accomplish.

ex:
when the government effected tax cuts, everyone received a larger paycheck.

(the two words affect/effect are closely related ... one could say something to the effect of: "we were all deeply affected when the government effected a tax increase.")

Effect:

1. Something brought about by a cause or agent; a result.

2. The power to produce an outcome or achieve a result; influence: The drug had an immediate effect on the pain. The government's action had no effect on the trade imbalance.         

Affect:                                                                                                                                                                    

 1. To have an influence on or effect a change in: Inflation affects the buying power of the dollar.

2. To act on the emotions of; touch or move.

             

The main differences of effect and affect are:

To affect something is to change or influence it, to effect something is a rather formal way of saying `to make it happen'. Confusingly, because either may produce an 'effect' or result this is a common error.

Had to reply to your request to not add to these inquiries since they are so old.   I disagree, because they still come up on search engines, so new people are viewing them all the time.

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