Posts tagged "words"
Affect vs Effect
Tue Mar 06, 2007 04:19:57 PM by Travis
Instead of studying for my exam, I'll post an interesting tidbit that I just looked up to avoid studying. I was curious about the difference between the verbs "affect" and "effect". I've always used them synonymously; it turns out I was wrong. According to dictionary.com, affect means "to influence," implying that there's something already present to influence. On the other hand, effect means "to bring about or execute," meaning that something new will be created. To be honest, I'm not sure I fully grasp the difference. Dictionary.com gives a good example at the bottom, and from what I can tell it appears I've been using the verb form of "effect" when I should have been using "affect". Interesting.