ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Affect, effect

Anonymous — Sat, 26 May 2007 04:21:04 GMT

Dear All,

Please note that the produce of effect is an affect. For e.g. In an application there could be multiple effects and collectively it is know as an affect.

In other words, the direct reaction is know as effect and indirect is an affect.

Thanking you,

With best regards,

Nanduri K. Prasad

Re: medical transcriptions

CalifJim — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 21:55:17 GMT

This is one of those rare exceptions. affect, the noun, is used in psychiatric medicine (and similar lexical fields) to mean "feeling tone", "attitude", "emotional response" -- that sort of thing.

the affect, stress on the first syllable.

There is nothing here to say, or even suggest obliquely, that the patient had an effect on anything, so effect has to be ruled out. Aside from this specialized use as a noun, affect should be thought of as 99.9% a verb.

CJ

Re: medical transcriptions

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 20:55:46 GMT

What would be correct for this sentence?

During the hospitalization, the patient's (affect, effect) became more appropriate.

HELP!!

Re: medical transcriptions

goldmund — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 13:55:33 GMT

Dear sir,

Â«Nothing you say can affect my decision.Â» It means that nothing you say can influence the decision.

Â«Nothing you say can effect my decision.Â» It means that nothing you say can make the decision happen.

The second example is unusual, I think.

Kind regards,

Goldmund

Re: medical transcriptions

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 12:42:36 GMT

"Nothing you say can _________ (affect=have an effect on?, effect?) my decision."

actually, this one's a tricky one. technically, you can use either word here without affecting the outcome of the sentence. the only difference is between the active and the passive voice of the action. using 'effect' in this case would be using it in the sense of 'change', which is active. it's also a very peculiar way to say it though, so affect is probably the clearer option to go for.

and, just to be exacting, the word to use in the original question is definitely 'affect' because we're not talking about a psychological emotional change - it's a physical change, and therefore requires the use of the verb, and not the noun.

Re: Affect, effect

Guest — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:19:50 GMT

another one for you experts out there:

What is the effect of temperature on the wood?

(a) "The wood is affected by temperature...."
---OR---
(b) "The wood is effected by temperature...."

Re: Affect, effect

Guest — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 15:32:04 GMT

i still don't get it i guess....

why don't these two sentences use the same word in question?

--Mike affected an English accent to disguise his Irish roots.
--When the government effected tax cuts, everyone received a larger paycheck.

it seems that they are both used as a verb, meaning to accomplish/bring about.

Re: medical transcriptions

CalifJim — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 04:35:54 GMT

It is a verb meaning "have an effect on", so it has to be the verb "affect".

It occurs without "the" or "an" or "no" (or other determiners), so that's another clue that it's probably not the noun "effect", meaning something like "result".

That drug can have a very powerful ________ (affect=have an effect on?, effect?) on the nervous system.

Nothing you say can _________ (affect=have an effect on?, effect?) my decision.

That joke did not have the intended ________ . (affect=have an effect on?, effect?)

The stroke he had years ago still continues to _________ (affect=have an effect on?, effect?) his speech.

(Answers: effect, affect, effect, affect)

You've heard of "causes" and "effects"? Well, strangely enough "effect" is almost never a verb unless it means "cause"! And that happens very rarely.

Re: medical transcriptions

Guest — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 17:37:51 GMT

Could you please tell if this is correct, please.

'A lot of symptoms that one person has won't affect some one else'

I'm starting to get a grasp of the difference, but this example has got me.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Affect, effect

miriam — Thu, 20 May 2004 16:06:32 GMT

Quote
"Sorry, you're wrong, the sentence is correct as is. Motor function and gait are AFFECTED by CP."

"affect" is a verb, "effect" a noun.

Motor function and gait are AFFECTED by cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy has a certain EFFECT on motor function and gait.

The opriginal sentence should read:
I have enclosed portions of a chapter from Baker's Textbook of Clinical Neurology, which I believe you will find of significance in discussing the origins of cerebral palsy and its EFFECT on motor function and gait.

Miriam

Re: Affect, effect

Guest — Thu, 20 May 2004 15:48:16 GMT

Hi folks,

I really love this site, it reminds me of the apostrophe protection society blog. Very interesting!

Anyway, I believe there is a very simple method to differentiate between effect and affect.

When used as nouns, the difference is pretty obvious.
An effect is a result of an action, while an affect is a feeling or emotion.

When used as verbs:
Effect is an active verb: 'The government effected swift decreases in the unemployment level.'
Affect is a passive verb: 'The unemployment level was positively affected by new government policies.'

If you have any trouble figuring out the difference between the active and passive tense, the trick is the word by. Usually, if there is a clause at the end of a sentence starting with by, the verb is passive. In the first sentence, the subject (government) is the actor. In other words the subject carried out an action. In the second sentence, the subject (unemployment level) is acted upon by a different entity.

However, affect can also be used in an active sense, but the context is different, âMike affected an English accent to disguise his Irish rootsâ.

This of course is only my humble opinion, put together in the days before Google. So, Iâd like to hear any comments on my theory, good or bad. If any of my sweeping grammatical statements are incorrect, Iâll have to shift the blame onto my English teacher of yore.

Cheerio!

Re: Affect, effect

Guest — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 23:49:23 GMT

All right doctor man:

Either the word effect or affect can be used in this particular case. When the word affect is used, it means to bring out a particular characteristic, a little like personification. The word effect, however, indicates that the outcome correlates directly to an inducer. And in fact, inducer proteins effect gene expression. The word effect fits more snuggly in my opinion, but no one is going to care either which way and probably wont know the difference himself. Only my devilish literature teacher notices this subtle an error. ciao

Re: Affect, effect

Guest — Wed, 03 Dec 2003 20:27:03 GMT

Sorry, you're wrong, the sentence is correct as is. Motor function and gait are AFFECTED by CP.

Affect, effect

Guest — Sun, 19 Oct 2003 04:34:35 GMT

I do medical transcription always seem to have trouble with the use of the word effect and affect. Sometimes it is very obvious; but the following sentence i questioned:

"I have enclosed portions of a chapter from Bake's of clinical neurology which i believe you will find of significance in discussing the origins cerebral palsy and its affect on motor function and gait."

Is this correct?

Re: medical transcriptions

kitkattail — Fri, 15 Aug 2003 22:27:05 GMT

Yay! Thank you! It's nice to hear that a stranger has enjoyed my blog, because I worry that it would be very boring to people who don't know me. After all, it a very personal (sometimes too personal) account of my daily life, and so I imagine parts of it would be extremely tedious to someone who has never met me. So it's good to hear the positive feedback.

Also: The difference between 'effect' and 'affect'