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I confess that I only went as far as 8th grade and I'm a bit challenged when it comes to proper English usage even though it is my native tongue. So I am confused by when to use affect or effect. I found this definition of proper usage here through google but I still don't get it. Can anyone illustrate when it is correct to use one as opposed to the other ?
So I have boat loads of education and I still have trouble with it too. Don't let the lack of an education ever persuade you in your thinking.
As the link suggests, one is usually a verb and the other is usually a noun.
Affect is often used in a psychological sense. Something affects you. It changes your mind perhaps.
Effect is a final event. A noun.
"I was deeply affected by JimmyHad's last PM, but the effect on my shaves was even more startling".
But, as you've noted it gets more complicated than that.
That pretty much sums it up.Quote:
Originally Posted by AFDavis11
I still have trouble it as well...so for better or worse I use affect as a verb...everything else is effect.
I'm sure it's not right all of the time, but I think it gets me close. :shrug:
This may help you.
Affect / Effect: cause or result
The effect of a fact can in fact affect the effectiveness of one who is effectively afflicted with affected affliction
Oh ... Now I understand!:banghead:Quote:
Originally Posted by hoglahoo
It's very effective when you effect changes but that might cause an affectation which might affect the way you be.
Where's that other bottle of moonshine?
I always remember it as "the effect," where as one affects a change. It's really the e-e that keeps me straight.
This link was posted on another forum I frequent today, perhaps it will help
10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling - The Oatmeal
I don't worry much about grammar or spelling.
English is a mongrel mix of languages that would be more sensible spelled Fuh-net-ick-lee
i usually just go with whichever on i write first and i dont even try to understand it :hmmm:
-dan-
I always remember it as "you affect the effect". Like in Starlibartfast"s comic, there are some weird rules where its reversed or something, but I really don't worry about those.
i myself am having trouble with advice or advise... i think it's important to say it aloud..
Quote:
Originally Posted by welshwizard
The thanks button did not work so here is my thank you to you.
Very helpful site for non-native speakers too. Tought me at thing or two and I even did not click all the buttons.
hmm, English isn't my native tongue. But I always learned it like this:
affect is a verb(act A is affecting object B), where effect is a noun describing the relationship between cause and result(The effect of act A is situation B).
just my 2 cents.
Both affect and effect can be either a noun or a verb. The link in my earlier post should help.
To be honest, though I did learn grammar at school, most of my knowledge has come through reading a lot.
Ironically, I only got to grips with English grammatical construction when I started to learn French.
Seeing the words used accurately and in correct context over and over again is the easiest way to learn.
I heard an interview on NPR this morning with the Editor of the Merriam Webster Dictionary. Among other things, he was discussing their online version and some of the interesting differences between it and the print version. For example, they now track which words are most frequently looked up online. Guess what, Jimmy, you're not alone. The two most frequently accessed words are "affect" and "effect". And you thought you were special....:)
Not special Bill, just especially dumb ..... :gaah:Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill S
Gentlemen:
For what it's worth, today my shave was so effective that it affected my state of mind.
Regards,
Obie
The English language is very beautiful when used properly by one who commands it well. Read this:
What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."
Winston Churchill June, 1940.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Thomas Jefferson July, 1776
Thanks for reading. I hope the affect was effective.
I get bunched up all the time w/ proper usage, Jimmy. The explanations are such that I can't add anything, but very much want to chime in w/ AFD that education isn't everything, and would add - it's not what it used to be. It's not bad, but often over-rated.
I had a copy of a workbook from an 11 year old from 1913. I looked at it for some time, and on several occasions. It was humbling. This 11 y.o. would run circles around most undergrad college students in math, geography & other subjects. Not all, but in many areas.
Me - I'm still embarrassed by my confusion in grammar, math, etc (with an M.A. in business).
I agree that education isn't all that it was. We've become far to dependent on computers, spell-check, and that annoying paper clip on Word.Quote:
Originally Posted by pinklather
I wrote my wife a love letter for Valentines, and I was amazed, shocked, and humbled at how dependent I'd become. My handwriting was horrible, and my spelling worse. I resorted to writing it in Word, printing it, then writing it by hand.
Oh, how low we've sunk.
I teach English and the rules of grammar are just too confusing plus my students when they follow the grammar rules of written language exactly they sound terrible, far to formal and not the proper spoken structure
Brother John, a wonderful old gentleman who taught my Senior year English class, taught me this little trick which I have NEVA forgotten: Noun Effect, Verb Affect. This only fails in psychiatry where an individual's emotional expression is called affect and is therefore used here as a noun.
It also fails when one wants to effect a change in the way they remember the difference between the words - good mnemonic though :)Quote:
Originally Posted by leadduck