Affect vs. Effect: You Think You Know But You Have No Idea

Recently a coworker was drafting an email to a student and asked if she should be using ‘affect’ or ‘effect’. I know I learned the difference a long long time ago but, as I attempted to answer her, I realized I was second guessing myself. I didn’t like not knowing the answer to her question because I am so accustomed to always being right. Maybe it’s my old age (btw happy birthday to me!) or maybe I’ve just been out of school too long.  I wrote roughly 820,369,418,604,784,542 papers throughout college and grad school and I definitely was clear on the proper usage back then.

I want you to know that I have NEVER misused there vs. their vs. they’re. Or your vs. you’re. Or than vs. then. But I was feeling unsure about affect vs. effect.

So a quick Google search will give us a little review:

Affect

1. To have an influence on or effect a change in: Inflation affects the buying power of the dollar.
2. To act on the emotions of; touch or move.
3. To attack or infect, as a disease: Rheumatic fever can affect the heart.

Effect

1. Something brought about by a cause or agent; a result.
2. The power to produce an outcome or achieve a result; influence: The drug had an immediate effect on the pain. The government's action had no effect on the trade imbalance.
3. A scientific law, hypothesis, or phenomenon: the photovoltaic effect. |
4. Advantage; avail: used her words to great effect in influencing the jury.
5. The condition of being in full force or execution: a new regulation that goes into effect tomorrow.
6. Something that produces a specific impression or supports a general design or intention: The lighting effects emphasized the harsh atmosphere of the drama.
7. A particular impression: large windows that gave an effect of spaciousness.
8. Production of a desired impression: spent lavishly on dinner just for effect.
9. The basic or general meaning; import: He said he was greatly worried, or words to that effect.

Then myself and two coworkers took this quiz:

Effect vs. Affect Quiz

One coworker got 7/11, one got 8/11, and I scored 9/11. The most important thing about all this is that I won. But I still didn’t do that well. I’ve always excelled at English and writing papers but apparently affect vs. effect can still trip me up. Take the quiz and see how you do. This stuff is tricky!

And now I’ve been saying affect and effect so many times they don’t even sounds like real words anymore...