Affect or Effect
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I know this is nothing to do with JoCo, but I know there are people that read this forum that know your stuff on the English language.
No-one here knows and can explain to those of us that don’t, the difference between Affect and Effect.
My understanding is Affect is the Action and Effect is the Event.
Someone said Affect is the past and Effect is the present, but we believe that to be completly wrong.Help, is there anyone who can explain this in simple language?
My understanding is Affect is the Action and Effect is the Event.
That’s right — “affect” is (generally) the verb, and “effect” is (generally) the noun.
(Confusingly enough, each has other meanings for which that’s not true — for simplicity’s sake, and because most people reading this don’t care, I shan’t go into details. But for the meaning you intend, you’re absolutely right.)
[Edited, 20080428, to say: I vastly underestimated the number of people who care.]
You affect something, which causes an effect.
(If it helps, when someone says, “cause and effect,” they’re talking about two separate things — the reason for something, and the result. “Affect”has the same meaning asis used in the same situations as “cause,” but “cause and effect” are opposite in meaning.)“affect” is (generally) the verb, and “effect” is (generally) the noun
That’s exactly how I would describe it as well. Now I feel all redundant.
The irritating opposites, though, cause a lot of confusion for people. “Affect: The Noun” is related in meaning to the word “affection”. You pronounce it with the accent on the first syllable, and it means something like “the emotional impact” of something. It’s seldom used except in an academic context.
“To Effect: The Verb” is used as a synonym for “create the result of….” It also has a pretty strictly academic use. Most frequently you’ll see it in the phrase “effect a change.”
Some URL’s for your perusal on the subject:
http://xkcd.com/326/Usage notes (from http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/effect , http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/affect)
Do not confuse effect with affect. The latter is used to convey the influence over existing ideas, emotions and entities; the former indicates the manifestation of new or original ideas or entities:
* …new governing coalitions have effected major changes indicates that major changes were made as a result of new governing coalitions.
* …new governing coalitions have affected major changes indicates that before new governing coalitions, major changes were in place, and that the new governing coalitions had some influence over these existing changes.I personally tend not to bother with the affect/effect business, so I let the grammar check software and/or Grammar Nazis have their fun.
That’s right — “affect” is (generally) the verb, and “effect” is (generally) the noun.
There’s a reason that Bry used those qualifiers, and thomast has provided an example.
As Mark knows, the reason (odd that I’ve just said the same thing in the General Questions thread) is, of course, that I do like to give accurate information but it’s more important to me that I don’t confuse people or go too far over their heads.
XKCD has an answer for every crisis.
edit: oops, I see this has already been referenced >_> Ah well, it’s still funny, and relevantish.
I think this is pretty well covered but I just got sent this link regarding usage of who’s and whose and I thought it was a pretty neat site.
Here is their info on affect vs effect:
http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/difficulties/affecteffect.html
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