Thanks to Gayle Rich-Boxman Fishhawk Lake Realtor (503)755-2905 for suggesting my research for today: The difference between affect and effect.
This is a pair or words I thought I had down pat, until I read something to the contrary that made me think perhaps they were sometimes interchangeable. As it turns out, what I read to the contrary was incorrect, and what I thought I knew is right the majority of the time, but there are exceptions.
First, we'll start with what Grammar Girl says is correct 95% of the time:
Affect is a verb.
Effect is a noun.
"Seeing the flooded basement affected their purchase decision."
"The flooded basement had a definite effect on their purchase decision."
"How will consistent prospecting affect your income?"
"Her marketing efforts had a positive effect on sales this year."
Grammar Girl has a couple of memory tricks on her site that might work for you, but they didn't show me much, so I've been trying to think of something better.
How's this: Affect is for "action" (a verb is an action word, after all). Effect is for "end result" (a noun).
Or how about Affect is for alter and Effect is for evidence (of the alteration).
So what are the exceptions?
First is the word affect as used in psychology. It becomes a noun and it refers to the mood that someone appears to have. "He displayed a happy affect."
Think of it in conjunction with an affectation – as when someone pretends to be more important or influential than they really are. We've all met those "affected" people at some time.
The word effect becomes a verb when it means "to accomplish" or "to bring about." As with affect as a noun, we don't see effect used in conversational speech very often.
An example would be "He hoped to effect a positive outcome." Most of us would just go ahead and say "He hoped to accomplish…" or "He hoped to bring about..."
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