affect or effect

[bottlefish]

It's always confused me.... could anyone give me some decent examples to help me understand and remember which one to use and when? Yeah, I could probably google an answer, but thought I'd throw it out to the YD masses instead

[Lou]

Ask what will A-ffect it, before you C the E-ffect

[bythesea]

It is an odd one and usually either will do but

To affect is to have influence on

To effect is to make happen

[Lou]

But you can also affect an accent, or demeanour, for example ie put it on.

And effect a a rescue.

But I assumed you meant which was the cause and which was the effect

[Scuba Diva]

You can affect someone/something but you have an effect on them/it.

[Morag]

the effect of cancelling aquanox will be to negatively affect the amount of money raised for charity.

[bottlefish]

OK, getting it now...

[Ralph]

xkcd: Effect an Effect
just to confuse stuff...

[uwila]

Affect (verb, transitive) means: To produce a change (posting on YD affects the quality of my work) or to make an emotional impact (Reading Stuart's posts always affects me deeply) or to pretend to an emotion (I affect an air of intelligence whilst posting on YD).
Affect (noun) is a feeling or emotion (The main affect of reading Stuart's post on me was happiness.)

Effect (verb, transitive) means to make something happen or to accomplish something (Faster broadband effected an increase in my posting speed.)
Effect (noun) is the reult of the above (The effect of all this posting is to get me fired )

Ish...

[Morag]

A
Affect (noun) is a feeling or emotion (The main affect of reading Stuart's post on me was happiness.)

I'd have said 'the main effect of reading Stuart's post on me was happiness'

Or

I was affected greatly by Stuart's post.



(my boss used to be a teacher - I'll ask her )