Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse people. I have found the following to be among them:
AFFECT / EFFECT
As verbs, affect can mean have influence on someone or something while effect means bring about something:
We need to favorably affect the earth’s atmosphere by reducing our carbon footprint in order to effect a vital reduction in global warming.
Most often, however, the word effect is used as a noun:
Humanity’s carbon footprint is having a negative effect on the earth’s atmosphere.
If this all seems a bit confusing, perhaps the safest way to go is to think of affect as a verb and effect as a noun and use some other word or phrase to mean to bring about.
© 2018 Ann Henry. All Rights Reserved.
3 thoughts on “Affect / Effect”
Affect is also a noun: emotional state – feelings. “After an old lady ran over me with her red pickup as I walked across King Street and almost killed me, I suffered from elevated startle response with negative affect (i.e., freaked-out).
You are absolutely correct, Kurt. But I didn’t want to get down into the weeds on this. I’m just trying to note areas where people, including me sometimes, tend to confuse words (or spellings). Thanks for your comment!
Don’t take me too seriously. I’m just a little bored these days with the stay-at-home C-19 lifestyle. In a normal world, I would be walking down the Calle (Street) Florida in Buenos Aires today – where I usually spend our summer, their winter – instead of driving down the Old Dixie Highway to Winn Dixie. Just a little irreverent fun…