Affect Or Effect?

Barsel | 17:18 Thu 30th Sep 2021 | ChatterBank

53 Answers

Is there an easy way for me to remember whether to use the word affect or effect please?

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Atheist

Barsel. I think the point about spoken and written words is a good one. If you say "effect" instead of "affect", nobody will notice. If you write it out, they'll just presume it was a finger slip. Best wishes.

Barsel

Question Author

Thank you Atheist.
Funnily enough, when I wrote it down, I wrote affect and somehow it didn't look right and so that is why I asked.
Now I have changed it to effect, not only does it look right but having read all the replies it makes sense now too.
Did you see my post at 19.03?

Atheist

Barsel, I did read your post and I have just re-read it and now realise that I was wrong, and misquoted. I guess I really did presume you were male. Sorry about that.

Barsel

Question Author

That's ok. APG referred to me as a male a little while ago and so I put the record straight with her, but it got into a bit of a fisty cuffs.
You have the manners to apologise for your mistake and that's fine by me. You are a true gentleman. x

DTCwordfan

An elderly man is stopped by the police around 2 a.m. and is asked where he is going at this time of night.

The man replies, "I am on my way to a lecture about alcohol abuse and the effects it has on the human body, as well as smoking and staying out late."

The officer then asks, "Really? Who is giving that lecture at this time of night?"

The man replies, "That would be my wife."

DTCwordfan

Defined by these two near-pensionable men...'So did I tell you that I was told that having an enormous penis has the side effect of affecting one's short term memory?'

Ellipsis

9 times out of 10, if not more, effect is a noun. Think of Special FX in movies, which means special effects, and they're nouns ie things. It helps that the F of FX is pronounced eff, not aff.

99 times out of 100, if not more, affect is a verb. A doing word. A word that acts on something. A for Act, A for Affect.

Barsel

Question Author

Very good DTC. :-)

bobbinwales

I remember back in the day wondering about the Jam album title Sound Affects , not sure if it was meant as that or not