Bill Corbett: After decades of writing, I’m ok on basic grammar and usage. But my brain refuses to learn the uses of ‘affect’ vs ‘effect.’ C’mon brain, I’ve looked this up 700 times. Time to retain this shit.

After decades of writing, I’m ok on basic grammar and usage. But my brain refuses to learn the uses of ‘affect’ vs ‘effect.’ C’mon brain, I’ve looked this up 700 times. Time to retain this shit.

the thing to remember is that affect is a noun and effect is a verb

God dammit iucounu

It’s true!

Until you look it up in the dictionary and learn that both affect and effect are both noun and verb.

It sort of has rare use as a verb, though... about the only instance I've seen/heard it used is "to effect change."

it is possible that my mischief was too subtle (yes, I know)

Usually.

As in "The spy had to effect an affect that would convince his captors that he was actually a harmless playboy."

Affect = you push something, Effect = It falls over

😄Ohhhhh, that’s fabulous!! So then: Affect = ACT Effect = EEK!!! I got it!!!

I just pick one and let the reader sort it out.

healthy

I tried just using *ffect, but it was in*ffective

That one sucks because 99% of the time it’s effect = noun and affect = verb, but also “effecting change” is a thing.

It gets worse if you study or work in psychology, where affect is a very common noun

My dumb mnemonic: A is for action, so affect is usually a verb.

This is how I learned it too

I'm currently reading a bestselling book by a celebrated professor who uses those words incorrectly. These things happen. 🤷‍♂️

this but it's being able to spell "necessary" correctly i don't know why my brain is like "you know what would look great there? an extra C"

this has been our bane since approximately the age of nine

The next time I look up it’s and its I should be arrested.

(If this is unwelcome intrusion, apologies, ignore me!) The way to remember, imo, is think of he/she/it. You wouldn't write hi's or her's for a possessive, so don't write it's.

Not unwelcome at all! Thank you!

Then/than

ThEn is timE/sequEncing. ThAn is compArison.

🙌

For the past decade, I’ve been trying to come to terms with the idea that I’ll never learn the difference, but somehow I still look it up convinced that THIS time it’ll stick.

As others mentioned, one is a noun, the other a verb. I think of it in alphabetical order. A comes before E, and action comes before result.

I have to look up stationery and stationary every time.

I have a handful of words I have to look up every time I encounter them. "Bespoke" is the most recent one I encountered. What's so hard about this for me? It's just a fancy word for "custom," which I know because I just looked it up again!

And that hasn't even taken into account offect and iffect, let alone uffect or sometimes yffect.

Yffect is Welsh though, right? Maybe Cornish. It can get ffect is what it can do.

No that would be 'ydych chi diolch heddiw' or something like that, my accent is a bit provincial.

Is it? I was making a vowel joke.

Not Cornish. Just Corny.

ha, no... or maybe. Who knows. I need to be careful here in case an anxious Welsh person takes offence.

I’ve got it down pat and I always pick the right one but it always LOOKS wrong anyway, and so I have to sit there and stare at it and think it through until I can convince myself it’s right

Remember: Affect Verb Effect Noun

A fun little trick for remembering it is typing whichever word online and letting the Grammer goons sort it out in the comments.

Even when I take the time to look up both words, there are sentences when I know I want to use one of them but am not sure which one is more appropriate.

To make it even more confusing, "affect" is also a noun used in psychiatry to describe someone's demeanor.

Whom hasn't made a similar mistake?

No. No, no, no. Not going there…

🤭😆

I'm of the mindset that we just fuse the two and make the spelling interchangeable at this point. Language is malleable, so why not sand off the rough bits?

The way I remember it: Fuck Around, Find Out Fucking Around is the A(ffect), Finding Out is the E(ffect) Action to Effect What you did to what happened as a result

Memorizing relevant sentences would probably do the trick.

example: i had a shitty affect so i effected a plan for personal growth. hope that helps!!! 😏🤗

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