On the other hand, effect can also be used as a verb that means “to cause or accomplish.” My first goal as the CEO was to effect positive change in company morale. Daughter noticed no change in his affect after delivering the bad news. Johnson always affects a patient attitude in front of the parents, but she’s short-tempered with the students.Īs a noun, affect means “experienced emotion or emotional response.” Surprisingly, Dr.

It’s important to note that affect and effect have other (less common) meanings, and that’s usually where the confusion lies.Īffect has another definition when used as a verb, and it’s “to imitate or put on a false appearance.” Mrs. Not only can LanguageTool detect wordy phrases like this one and offer more concise alternatives, but this intelligent writing assistant will also make sure you use affect and effect correctly, while checking for spelling and grammar mistakes as you write. In the example above, better self-esteem is the result or outcome of exercising.Ī lot of the time, will have an effect is a wordy phrase that can be replaced with will affect. In other words, consistent watering will make a difference to the growth of the plants.Įffect /ɪˈfekt/ is often used as a noun that means “a result of an action or other cause.” Exercising had a positive effect on my self-esteem. The most common use of affect /əˈfekt/ is as a verb that means “to cause a change or make a difference to someone or something.” Consistent watering will affect the growth of the plants. You’ll find that reading this article will have an effect on you: it will affect your knowledge of these two words. But in everyday speech, these words are said almost identically. Technically, affect and effect have different pronunciations. ○ Going to sleep late had an effect on my performance the next day.

Effect is mainly used as a noun that means “a result of an action or other cause.”.

○ The large meal I had right before that game affected how I played.

Most of the time, affect is used as a verb that means “to cause a change or make a difference to someone or something.”.

Have an effect or affect on someone