Affect and effect | Frequently confused words | Usage | Grammar Video Lecture | Complete Course on English Grammar: Upgrade your Speaking & Listening - Personal Skills

hello grammarians today we're going to
talk about two of my well I don't know
if I call them favorite but two of my
most frequently confused words I make
this mistake all the time you know and I
think it's important to keep it straight
so effect and effect are two very
different words what is the difference
you might ask well that's why I'm here
so to sum it up let's just put the TLDR
right at the top affect is a verb just
think of that as a verb and effect think
of that as a noun it's more complicated
than that obviously but most of the time
when you're looking at these two words
and you're trying to decide which one do
I use aspect is a verb effect is a noun
that's that's the too long didn't read
of this video and who reads a video but
this is this is your key takeaway let me
let me give you some examples so okay so
let's take this sentence the drought had
a nasty blank on Angela's crops now both
of these words mean something happened
right they both they both mean that
there was a change but effect with an e
is the result of that change and effect
with an A or effect is the changing is
the change agent if that makes sense so
we're looking at the sentence the
drought had a nasty blank on Angela's
crops we know we need to use one of
those well we're signalling here by
using the article a and you know this
adjectives nasty that we're looking for
a noun so we want to say the drought had
a nasty effect another way to say to
think of this is effect with an E is the
same way of saying result similarly if
we wanted to write this sentence again
but with effect with verb we'd say the
drought affected Angela's crops so
effect we're using it as a verb effect
we're using it as a noun and I'm
exaggerating the pronunciation of those
just to give you to give you the
distinction now of course there are
always obnoxious exceptions let's cover
them briefly but just bear in mind
that these are pretty rare okay
so number one the word effect with an e
has verb when you see this as a verb it
usually means to create so the way the
way I usually see this is in the phrase
effect change which really means to to
bring about change effect here means to
create so Kimiko hope that the new mayor
would effect change in her town what
we're saying here is really make change
when we say effect as a verb that's
that's really it just means to make and
the other obnoxious exception is effect
as a noun which is a like a psychology
term it really means like someone's
personality so for example Percy had a
smug effect and that just means that his
personality is smug now I want to hit
again that these are these are
exceptions and they're pretty rare and I
would caution avoiding them most of the
time I think your big takeaway is that
affect is a verb and effect is a noun
and yes these exceptions exist but I
think in the interest of clarity you
need to be very certain when you're
using them because effect here as a noun
is professional jargon frankly this is
this is psychologists talk and that
means it's a very particular kind of
English it's to be used in a specific
context likewise effect as a verb
frankly I don't know what you get out of
this I would just say make frankly like
I'm not sure it's worth the confusion
but that's just a style tip obviously
it's still grammatical to use it that
way
you just have to be careful of confusion
so what's the takeaway aspect is a verb
effect is a noun but there are
exceptions you can learn anything Dave
it out