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Most of the time "affect" is a verb and "effect" is a noun, but there are exceptions. We have an
example, a memory trick, and a cartoon to help you remember when to use "affect" or "effect."
I get asked whether to use affect or effect all the time, and it is by far the most requested
grammar topic, so I have a few memory tricks to help you remember.
The main way affect is pronounced is [uh-fekt], more like it has an A-sound at the beginning.
Effect as a noun
Aardvark wondered whether the heat was having an effect on the fish.
Affect as a verb
Most of the time, affect is a verb, and effect is a noun; and now we can get to the memory tricks
and more examples,
I remember how to use affect and effect by thinking of a big black raven. A raven? Yes, a raven!
Because raven has the letters A-V-E-N in it, and those also stand for
Fix that image of a raven in your mind, and youll always remember the most common way to
use these words. I actually remember the sentence The craven raven flew down the avenue,
because craven, raven, and avenue all have the A-V-E-N sequence, and in my mind, the evil
raven is flying down the avenue of a German town with those timbered white Bavarian-style
houses. I dont know why. I have a wild imagination. Find yours, and really imagine that affect-
verb-effect-noun raven so youll always remember it.
Once people remember the RAVEN trick, they often ask for tips to figure out whether the word
theyre trying to use is a noun or a verb. Do I have some? Of course, I do!
See if you can substitute another verb for the word you want. Heres an example. If your
sentence is The arrows affected Aardvark, you can tell that affected is a verb first because it can
become past tense by adding -ed (nouns dont do that), and second because you can substitute
other verbs such as hurt, poked, and hit:
What does affected really mean in that sentence? Its better to be more specific, and write
something like
Now you know what really happened, not just that the plans were affected, somehow changed,
but they were changed in a bad waythey were ruined.
Heres an example:
Notice that I said the effect. The word has an article before it, so its a noun. You can
remember that by noting that the word the ends with E and the noun effect starts with E, so if you
can butt those two Es up against each other, you have a noun.
and sometimes there could be an adjective between the article and the noun like the word special
in this sentence:
Nouns wont always have the word the right in front of them. Thats not the point. The point is
COULD you put the word the in front of it and have the sentence still sound mostly OK? If you
could, its a noun. For example, you could change those last two sentences so that the is right
before effect like this:
Squiggly marveled at the effects in the movie.
Squiggly wondered whether the news would have the effect on Aardvark.
That last one sounded kind of weird, but it didnt sound ungrammatical. It makes some kind of
sense. But if you try to put the in front of a verb, it just doesnt work:
The weather the affected Aardvarks holiday plans? (That just sounds wrong.)
The arrows the affect Aardvark. (That just sounds wrong too, because affect is a verb in
that sentence and you cant modify verbs with articles. Only nouns, like effect, can take an
article.)
Those are the basics! RAVEN helps you remember affect-verb-effect-noun, and you know how
to tell the difference between verbs and nouns. But what about those exceptions I mentioned at
the beginning.
If the rule is affect-verb-effect-noun 95% of the time, what about the other 5%?
Notice that I pronounced the word differently. When its a noun this way, its pronounced [af-
ekt].
Effect can be used as a verb that essentially means "to bring about," or "to accomplish, and
youre most likely to see it in the phrase effect change. For example, you could say, "Aardvark
hoped to effect change in the village.
And in my mind, its that German village again. Whole circle fullness! I hope my RAVEN trick
helps you remember the difference between affect and effect forever.