English rant #15: Effect v. affect

I used to teach preparatory classes for the SAT.  In addition to all the stratagems for outwitting the test writers, vocabulary development, and writing drills, the main printed guides to the SAT also included sections in which commonly misspelled or confused words were defined for the student’s review.

One of the most common of these pairs of frequently misused words was effect and affect.  Both have noun and verb forms, and while there is some relationship between them in meaning, they are not one and the same.

Affect as a noun is rarely used (except in psychology), and most of its meanings in this context are obsolete.  Its use nowadays is more often as a transitive verb (i.e. taking an object).  Here it means “[t]o assume the character or appearance of; to put on a pretense of; to pretend; to feign; to counterfeit; as, to affect indifference” or “[t]o lay hold of or attack (as a disease does); to act or produce an effect upon; to impress or influence the mind or feelings; to touch.”  Common synonyms for affect include influence, operate, act on, and concern.

Effect, on the other hand, has many current and relevant uses as a noun.  The most common is “[t]hat which is produced by an agent or cause; the event which follows immediately from an antecedent; result; outcome; as, the effect of luxury.”  Synonyms for effect as a noun here include consequence and result.

One can see the relationship between affect and effect in this context where, for example, bad publicity could affect a candidate’s public image, the effect of which might be that candidate’s loss at the polls.

If what I’ve written above satisfies your interest in the difference between these two words, feel free to stop reading.  But being an English language nut-case, I’ve opted (in the interest of thoroughness) to include some other definitions of effect as a noun:

— Purport; intent;  They spoke to her to that effect (2 Chron 34:22)

— Goods; movables; as, The people escaped with their effects (used frequently by Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest)

— a. fulfillment or accomplishment; —now only in phrases to carry into effect, to bring to effect b. Reality; fact; —now only in the phrase in effect

— A distinctive impression; as, to act for effect

— State or fact of being operative; execution; performance; as, the law goes into effect in May; to take effect

Effect strikes out on its own as a transitive verb when used to mean, in contemporary parlance, “to bring to pass, to execute; enforce; accomplish; They sailed away without effecting their purpose.”  Synonyms for this meaning include complete, realize, carry out, consummate, compass, fulfill.

When I see these two words confused, it is usually in cases where the writer means to use affect as a verb and effect as a noun.  In cases such as this, one can think of their cause-and-effect relationship alphabetically: to affect people is to have an effect on them.

Advertisement