Not too complicated (except maybe for the patient). Sounds like the patient was in kind of a blah mood. Funny how that works, right? Affect as a nounĪffect as a noun means feeling, emotion, or specific emotional response. Ironically, it might be easier to effect change with a really powerful Facebook movement than to affect the changes that are happening to society because of the widespread use of social media. If this discussion about social media had to do with citizens trying to “affect change,” that would probably mean that they’re trying to speed up, slow down, or totally stop all forms of change that have to do with social media. The Huffington Post, “Social Media as a Formidable Force for Change” What once seemed like a trivial way to keep in touch with friends, sharing photos and jokes, has become a force for societal change, empowering citizens of the world to unite and effect change in a number of ways. It doesn’t have to be quite so revolutionary, either. That’s nice, but not as powerful as creating change, especially when there’s a corrupt government on the line. If you use affect here, it would mean “to have an effect on change” or “to impact change.” Protesters who want to “affect change” would be trying to impact existing changes. In other words, they wanted to bring about the effect of change-maybe by getting the government to change its policies or even step down. When to use affectĪffect means to influence or to produce a change in something. So when it comes to writing the right word, here are the rules to help you bear the struggle.

Bear/bare, here/hear, and write/right are other examples. effect are tricky because many people pronounce them as homophones, which means, well, that they sound alike. The result, or effect, of that verb is “wetness,” a noun that is probably causing Raphael a whole lot of discomfort.Īffect and effect are different parts of speech, but they sound almost identical. Raphael being wet is the effect of Ruby’s irresistible urge to push him into a pond.īecause Ruby performed an action, that signals the use of a verb: affect. Imagine Ruby (A) pushes Raphael (B) into a pond. So, if A affects B, B experiences the effect of A’s action. In the majority of cases, you’ll encounter the words as these parts of speech. At least (spoiler alert!), most of the time. Is it affect or effect? In a nutshell, affect is a verb and effect is a noun. Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly The difference between affect and effect

Affecting someone or effecting