Affect vs Effect: How to Properly Use Them in a Sentence

If there is one thing that is certain in life, it’s that English is not one of the most user-friendly languages in the world. With roots in western Germany from Anglo-Saxon migrants, English has not only shared a very rich, diverse etiological history but now represents the current language of the free world. 

This is interesting because the English language has such a diverse background, having been influenced by several different cultures and languages of origin, to now be symbolic of a world made up of rich diversity. The United States, famous for being a melting pot of different ethnic cultural heritage and origins, still holds English as its main language.

When it comes to languages that are challenging to understand, English is one of the harder ones that come up. Certain rules seem arbitrary, and what’s more, it feels like as soon as you learn one rule you run across a dozen exceptions where that rule has no effect. 

What is a Homonym?

You know you might be in trouble when a language has an entire category set aside for words that sound identical but have drastically different meanings. This category of words is called homonyms, simple words that phonetically sound identical but couldn’t be more different. 

What’s more, is that English pleasantly has no shortage of homonyms. While it may be hard for native English speakers to remember the learning curve that they went through as children learning about this for the first time, there are still certain words that can cause confusion. 

Words like, plane, and, plain, may actually be simple enough – but there are heavy hitters that even adult professionals can easily mix up without meaning to. Two of the most often confused words in the English language are actually the words, Affect, and Effect. 

These two words, more than nearly every other set of similar-sounding words in the English language, not only get misused but genuinely confuse English speakers the most. It’s one thing to accidentally just use the wrong word because you’ve been sleep-deprived, on your fourth cup of coffee and you are desperately trying to beat a deadline. It’s entirely different to honestly not know the difference between two homonyms. 

If you find yourself in the camp of simply not knowing how to use these two words effectively, then the good news is that you can learn the difference here and now! So without further ado, let’s jump into an effective, thorough explication between the two that will affect the way we treat these two words from here on out. 

Effect vs. Affect – What’s the Big Deal?

Affect vs. Effect, may seem insignificant, but nothing is further from the truth. Using these words inappropriately can cause your message to end up making as much sense as texting your mom that your bear feet are getting cold and asking her if she’s seen your house slippers. 

The two words are in fact very different. Even tho they are misused so often that we can quickly surmise their proper meaning based on context alone, you should know the difference. Let’s start with ‘affect’ as the first point of interest. 

Affect is a Verb

Affect is most commonly used as a verb and thus is always indicative of action. When something occurs that changed something or had an impact on someone, you would use, ‘affect’. This implies action, impact, and something that ‘happened’. 

Example: The car crash affected him more than realized, which is probably why he silently struggled to bring his breathing under control every time he came to an intersection. 

Another example: She knew that it was going to be hard to not let his response affect her decision, this was her life and she needed to make the best decision for her, not him. 

Effect is a Noun

It may be surprising to learn that effect is actually a noun and not an adjective or a verb. This is because ‘effect’ stands for the result of something. While ‘affect’ implies the causation or action of some effect, ‘effect’ is the end result itself. It is the change that happened as a result as opposed to the mechanism of that change.

Example: He breathed heavily, but it had no effect

In the above sentence, breathing heavily is the action, and ‘effect’ indicated the change that it brought. This is not an action or an adjective but instead a state of being. 

Another example: She had hoped her words would cut to the core of who he was, based on his shocked expression, she knew they had had the desired effect. 

Again, this is another example of how the word effect describes the end result of these shockingly biting words and not the mechanism of action. 

How to Proof Your Work?

One of the hardest parts of writing is being able to go back and check your own work properly. The good news about homonyms is that they can be flagged pretty easily in the editing process. If you are insecure about your usage of words like ‘affect’ or ‘effect’, then utilizing the search function in your word processor to highlight their occurrence is a great tool. 

Once you have highlighted them, simply go through and ask yourself if the usage of ‘effect’ fits a noun, and the usage of ‘affect’ fits a verb. This might be confusing at first, but over time you will begin to train yourself to know how to properly use these homonyms the first time through. The most important thing to remember is to have patience with yourself and expect to see growth over a period of time! 

Conclusion

Certain rules and nuances of the English language are just tricky to understand and master. Learning this can simply just take time and practice to get good at. Don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way whether that’s by getting your content edited or using third-party editing software like Grammarly. 

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