# Affect/Effect



## miguel Quintana

Hello Again:

I would like clarification on when to use:

Affect  and  Effect.   I just don´t understand them and I can´t explain it to others either.

Thank you

Miguel


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## moki

effect is a noun

ex. the effect is that...


affect is a verb

ex. it affected me


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## jacinta

Affect is a verb.
Effect is a noun.

The drug is affecting his work.
The drug has no effect on him.

Let me know if it is still unclear.


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## Swettenham

Effect can be a verb.  It means "to bring into existence, to produce as a result, to bring about."

This usage is fairly rare.


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## trinityman

Just to be precise, both 'affect' and 'effect' are nouns and verbs.

affect (v) -- to have an impact on something, in the figurative or literal sense; to project a particular emotion, often insincerely

affect (n) -- a conscious display of feeling or emotion 

effect (v) -- to engender, bring about

effect (n) -- a consequence of a previous action


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## Ms Missy

This was very well explained.  Here's a couple of sentences for purposes of examples:

Q.  Has the war had any _effect_ on the economy?
A.  No, so far the economy has not been _affected_.

Q.  How might the war _affect_ the economy in the future?
A.  There's always the chance that it will have a negative _effect_ on employment and wages.


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## gramatica

Hi,

Usually affect is "afectar" and effect is "efecto."

I hope this helps

Saludos


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## dakotabrett

They are pronounced exactly the same and native English-speakers confuse them quite commonly, which might cause further confusion for you if you see them misused in writing.  However effect is _efecto_ or _efectuar_, and _affect_ is _afectar_.


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## Ms Missy

dakotabrett said:


> *They are pronounced exactly the same* and native English-speakers confuse them quite commonly, which might cause further confusion for you if you see them misused in writing. However effect is _efecto_ or _efectuar_, and _affect_ is _afectar_.


 
I disagree that they are pronounced _*exactly the same*_.  Or perhaps I should say that they should *NOT* be pronounced exactly the same.  For example, one of them begins with _*e *_and the other begins with *a.*  (The one with _*a*_ has the swah sound of _*"uh"*_ as in _*'uh-fect.*_'  The one with the *e* has the long e sound as in *eee-fect*.  So it is both incorrect and misleading to say that they are pronounced exactly the same).


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## geostan

Ms Missy said:


> I disagree that they are pronounced _*exactly the same*_.  Or perhaps I should say that they should *NOT* be pronounced exactly the same.  For example, one of them begins with _*e *_and the other begins with *a.*  (The one with _*a*_ has the swah sound of _*"uh"*_ as in _*'uh-fect.*_'  The one with the *e* has the long e sound as in *eee-fect*.  So it is both incorrect and misleading to say that they are pronounced exactly the same).



Not necessarily. "Effect" may be pronounced with the schwa without committing a pronunciation error. It is precisely because the two words may be pronounced alike that the confusion exists.

Cheers!


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## LaReinita

I think that the correct pronunciation would be exactly how they would be pronounced in Spanish.

Affect--with the schwa

Effect--with the E

This is how I've also pronounced them . . . I think the confusion lies in the most common pronunciation and the fact that the meanings are very close.


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## SnapleJax

Since they are both unstressed vowels, they are both pronounced as a schwa.  The pronunciantion of affect as a noun, however, is quite different.  Since the stress of the word falls on the penultimate (or in this case first) syllable, the vowel does not become a schwa, but is rather an 'a' as in cat.

I know of a great site on the topic , but i can't include it because i don't have enough posts yet!  its: wsu dot edu backslash ~brians backslash errors backslash affect

¡por si les interesa!

saluditos!


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## SnapleJax

To put it in pseudo-IPA:

ə 'FECT (V)

'A fect (N): meaning somthing similar to "emotion".  It's not common to hear it.  On the rare occasion I do, it is usually part of the sentence, "s/he had a flat affect", meaning they showed no emotion.  As has been said already, however, most of the time "affect" is the verb and "effect" is the noun (both having stress on the last syllable).  This here is the little exception and, as you can see, its meaning is very different.

Hope this helps more than it confuses!


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## Lulysol

How would you translate "affect" if it is used as a noun? 

E.g: 

"They have had stronger affect for its union and leadership than for its party organization"

Thanks!


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## NewdestinyX

Ms Missy said:


> I disagree that they are pronounced _*exactly the same*_.  Or perhaps I should say that they should *NOT* be pronounced exactly the same.  For example, one of them begins with _*e *_and the other begins with *a.*  (The one with _*a*_ has the swah sound of _*"uh"*_ as in _*'uh-fect.*_'  The one with the *e* has the long e sound as in *eee-fect*.  So it is both incorrect and misleading to say that they are pronounced exactly the same).



This is not the case at all. Unstressed vowels are both 'schwa' in proper English. No one I've ever heard says eee-fect. That sounds totally 'affected'. (another use of 'affect' as an adjective)

Grant


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## isabelle82

Hola no sé que sería correcto para decir que la ley entró en vigor:
a law came into affect 
a law came into effect.
Gracias!


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## geostan

LA palabra correcta es_ effect_.


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## Peterdg

NewdestinyX said:


> This is not the case at all. Unstressed vowels are both 'schwa' in proper English. No one I've ever heard says eee-fect. That sounds totally 'affected'. (another use of 'affect' as an adjective)
> 
> Grant


Come on! 

Even the Webster's New World Dictionary (US English) says that "effect" is pronounced "eee"fect and "affect" is "uh"ffect.

I have never known differently, with which I don't want to say everybody pronounces it correctly.


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## geostan

Peterdg said:


> Come on!
> 
> Even the Webster's New World Dictionary (US English) says that "effect" is pronounced "eee"fect and "affect" is "uh"ffect.
> 
> I have never known differently, with which I don't want to say everybody pronounces it correctly.



Not so. _effect_ may be pronounced _ee fekt_, but it is not the common pronunciation. I certainly do not use it. Websters Unabridged Dictionary gives both pronunciations when it is a noun, but offers none for the verb.


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## Forero

I pronounce the first vowel of _effect_ with something close to the vowel of _if_, but I pronounce the first vowel of the verb _affect_ with a more neutral schwa. In other words, I pronounce both with schwa sounds, but "aimed at" different places. When I speak quickly, however, they sound very much alike.

The noun _affect_ begins with the same vowel as _after_.


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## Peterdg

geostan said:


> Not so. _effect_ may be pronounced _ee fekt_, but it is not the common pronunciation. I certainly do not use it. Websters Unabridged Dictionary gives both pronunciations when it is a noun, but offers none for the verb.


My Webster gives the pronunciation for both the noun and the verb and also mentions that it can be pronounced "uh" (meaning the schwa; sorry for the rudimentary phonetic representation) for both the noun and the verb. The "ee"- is the main entry and the remark says: (often "uh"-). 

In my professional experience (I'm working for an American company for almost 30 years) I've noticed that most people pronouncing it "uh"- also write "effect" when they actually mean "affect" ("these new rules do not _effect_* us") or vice versa for that matter.

So, you may be right many people pronounce them the same way, but it's certainly not true that "ee"-fect for "effect" would be rare or unusual (which was the reason for my previous post); on the contrary (at least from my experience).


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## Peterdg

Forero said:


> I pronounce the first vowel of _effect_ with something close to the vowel of _if_, but I pronounce the first vowel of the verb _affect_ with a more neutral schwa. In other words, I pronounce both with schwa sounds, but "aimed at" different places. When I speak quickly, however, they sound very much alike.
> 
> The noun _affect_ begins with the same vowel as _after_.


Then you mean the US-English pronunciation of _after. _The British-English pronunciation of _after_ is completely different and does not apply to the pronunciation of "affect" at all. 

I'm writing this remark just so that students don't get confused.


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## Forero

Peterdg said:


> Then you mean the US-English pronunciation of _after. _The British-English pronunciation of _after_ is completely different and does not apply to the pronunciation of "affect" at all.
> 
> I'm writing this remark just so that students don't get confused.


Sorry, I meant like the _a_ of _cat_.


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## zumac

I don't agree that affect/effect are pronounced the same by all people.

A great deal has to do with where an English-speaking person comes from; i.e., USA, UK, Canada, South Africa, India, etc.

Even within the US, we have different pronunciations for many words. A few sample words identified by linguist Mario Pei, are: merry, marry, Mary, greasy, father, can (noun), can (verb), etc.

So, even if this forum came to an agreement as to the correct pronunciation of affect/effect, people will say them differently depending on where they are from.

Saludos.


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## jazzy leigh

Affect-1 obsolete : feeling, affection
Effect-something that inevitably follows an antecedent (as a cause or agent)


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## elcastellano

miguel Quintana said:


> Hello Again:
> 
> I would like clarification on when to use:
> 
> Affect  and  Effect.   I just don´t understand them and I can´t explain it to others either.
> 
> Thank you
> 
> Miguel



Hey, amigo, me he criado con el inglés, y puedo decirte que pronuncio las dos como si fuesen la misma palabra, entonces no sé cual es cual.  No me importa y si no tienes un trabajo o algo mas asi, no te preocupes! Pues ojála te haya ayudado yo.


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## NewdestinyX

Peterdg said:


> Come on!
> 
> Even the Webster's New World Dictionary (US English) says that "effect" is pronounced "eee"fect and "affect" is "uh"ffect.
> 
> I have never known differently, with which I don't want to say everybody pronounces it correctly.


Websters Unabridged gives both pronunciations for 'effect' -- with schwa and with long ee. But I can tell you that anywhere in America there is no difference in the pronunciations detectable to the ear in speech. And I asked a British friend of mine if she pronounced them different either -- she said no.. Exactly the same for her too. Where you do indeed hear a difference in America is in the word 'effectively' which can and often has more of the 'ee' sound at the beginning.


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