Affect and Effect
Affect and effect are words that are often confused with one another. However, affect is a verb that means ‘to have an impact on something,’ while the effect is a noun referring to the result of an action. So, for instance, we’d say, ‘the crops were affected by rain’ and ‘the effects of rain on the crops.’
Throughout our helpful Twinkl guide, you’ll learn about the difference between the effect of the words and affect, how we use them, how they’re pronounced and how you can help learners to use them correctly!
What’s the difference between affect and effect?
Effect and affect are very similar-sounding words that get mixed up a lot. So much so that adults and children sometimes use the wrong word in their speech or writing. Although it’s an easy mistake to make, it’s also essential to learn the difference between the two so that our writing can have the right effect (not affect!) on the reader!
One essential thing to remember is that ‘effect’ and ‘affect’ belong to different classes of words. Affect is a verb, while effect is most commonly used as a noun. However, these words also have different meanings:
- Affect is a word that means to have an impact, or effect, on something else. While it can refer to many different things or subjects, we also use it to discuss an emotional wreck. So, for example, we might say, ‘they were affected by the heart-warming story.
- Effect, on the other hand, refers to the result of an action, change, or event. So, for instance, we might say that ‘eating healthy foods can have many positive effects.
The simplest way to understand this difference is that affect means to affect something, while effect means the result of something.
Are affect and effect homophones?
The words effect and affect aren’t quite homophones. Instead, they’re near homophones, where two words share similar pronunciation but different spellings and meanings.
Sometimes, people might accidentally pronounce effect and affect as homophones.
When do we use affect and effect?
To illustrate the difference a bit more clearly, let’s delve into how we might use affect and effect in our speech or writing. Of course, we’ll also provide plenty more helpful examples along the way.
As we mentioned before, affect is used as a verb that means to have an impact or effect on something. This impact may or may not be emotional:
“Going for a run three times a week positively affects my health.”
“The heavy rainfall affected food production in the region.”
“She was affected after hearing the sad news.”
However, affect can sometimes be used as a verb that means to fake something:
“Thomas tried to affect a cold to get out of going to school.”
As we’ve discovered, the effect is most commonly used as a noun to refer to a change or impact of an action or event:
“You can see the effects of the earthquake.”
“Healthy eating and exercise can have positive effects on your health.”
However, things can get tricky when ‘effect’ is used as a verb. The effect can be a verb that means ‘to cause something to happen or bring about a change. Fortunately, the effect isn’t commonly used in this way. Here’s an example to illustrate it:
“The government affected a change to existing laws to make them fairer.”
How do you remember affect and effect?
Now that we’ve outlined the essential differences between affect and effect, how can we commit this info to memory?
There are quite a few different memory tricks that we could use to help us remember the difference between these two similar-sounding words. Of course, you and your pupils can use whichever ones work for you, but here are a couple of handy ideas:
- Because affect starts with an ‘a’ and effect starts with an ‘e,’ affects comes first alphabetically. It might help you to remember that the affect refers to the action, while the effect is the result that comes after.
- Another way to remember it is to think about cause and effect. Because the effect comes after the cause, it is an excellent way to remember that it is the result of an action.
