Affect vs. Effect + 50 Collocations!

The words affect with an A and effect with an E are often mixed up, even by native English speakers. They're only spelled differently by one letter, and they essentially sound the same in fast-spoken English. Well, in today's lesson, I'm going to teach you the difference clearly with lots of examples, so you'll be able to use these words correctly, and then we'll learn more than 50 collocations, common combinations of words with affect and effect. This is a really detailed lesson, so I've made a free PDF download available with everything I'm teaching today, plus a couple of bonus quizzes. You can download it by clicking on the link in the video description, and then I'll send you that free PDF by email. I think you'll find it really helpful. We'll begin with affect with an A. Affect with an A is mainly used as a verb, meaning the action of influencing something else or causing it to change. You can remember it because affect starts with an A and action starts with an A. So, we have affect and effects in the present tense, affecting in continuous tenses, and affected in the past tense. Let's see some examples. The canceled flight affected our travel plans. So, the flight was canceled, and this caused our travel plans to change. The new policy will affect the entire company. Let's see how this new advertising campaign affects sales. The weeds in the garden are affecting the growth of the flowers. So, the weeds are changing or having an impact on the flowers' growth. There are even more example sentences inside that downloadable PDF, so you can see exactly how this word is used in more sentences. But for now, let's move on to affect spelled with an E. The word affect spelled with an E can be used as both a noun and a verb, but it's more commonly used as a noun, referring to the result or consequence of an action. For example, the noise had a negative effect on my concentration. That's a negative result. I'm starting to see the effects of my new diet. I've lost five pounds. The effects, meaning the results. Now, that was affect as a noun. As I mentioned, that's more common, and you can see more example sentences in that PDF lesson guide. Affect can also be used as a verb, and it means to make something happen. Usually, affect change, affect reform, etc. For example, the senator's hard work has affected several reforms in the government, so his work made the reforms happen. Now, that use of affect with an E as a verb is less common, and it's a little more formal. In everyday English, we typically use affect with an E as a noun, as in those previous examples. A little summary here. Affect with an A is usually a verb to influence or change something. Adding hot pepper will affect, it will change, it will influence the flavor of the food. Effect with an E is usually a noun, meaning result. I wasn't prepared for the effect of those spices, the result of adding the spices to the food. Now that you know the difference, let's learn some collocations, some common combinations of words with affect and effect. Collocations with affect starting with A often involve adverbs of degree telling us how much one thing affected another. So if something affects another thing only a little, we can say slightly affect, barely affect, or hardly affect. For example, the marketing campaign didn't work very well. It barely affected sales. For the opposite case, affecting something a lot, we have greatly affect, radically affect, significantly affect, affect something very much, and deeply or profoundly affect. This often has the connotation of affecting someone's emotions. For example, moving to a much bigger and more expensive house will greatly affect our budget. Losing his mother at such a young age profoundly affected his childhood. A few more collocations with affect with an A include clearly affect when the influence is obvious, directly and indirectly affect, adversely affect when the influence is negative, seriously or severely affect when the influence is large and often negative, and likely to and unlikely to affect based on how probable you think it is. Let's look at some examples. I'm always happy in the summer and depressed in the winter. The weather clearly affects my mood. The disease severely affected his vision and he needed surgery to correct it. Switching jobs so often is likely to affect your reputation in the industry. Okay, let's move on to collocations with affect starting with E. We have adjectives describing how big the change or result is. So for a large result, we have a dramatic affect, a powerful affect, a profound affect, a significant affect, a strong affect, and a far-reaching affect. For a small result, we have a modest affect, a minimal affect, a marginal affect, and a negligible affect. That's almost no impact, a very tiny result. We also have words telling us the result is clear and easy to see. Like a visible affect, a noticeable affect, a discernible affect, and a measurable affect. These next adjectives tell us about how long the impact or result lasts. So we can talk about a short-term affect or a long-term affect. There's also a residual affect. That's one that lasts some time after the event, often getting a little bit smaller with time. These adjectives are used for results that are bad, an adverse, harmful, ill, or detrimental affect, a destructive or damaging affect, a catastrophic or devastating affect, that's extremely bad, a traumatic affect, or an undesirable or unfortunate affect. For example, the earthquake had a devastating affect on the city, caused a lot of damage, knocked a lot of buildings down, maybe a lot of people were killed. That's a devastating affect. And these adjectives are used for results that are good. We have the desired affect, that's the one we want or we hope for, a beneficial affect, a positive affect, a magical affect, a calming or soothing affect, that means it makes you calm or it eases pain or discomfort, and a curative, restorative, or therapeutic affect, that means it heals. These next words tell us about the probability that a result will happen. A possible or potential affect, this means maybe it will happen. A likely or probable affect, this means it probably will happen. And a predictable affect, this means it was easy to guess or know that it would happen. Here are some additional adjectives that are common collocations with affect. We've got a lot of these. A side affect, that's not the main one, but an additional one. You'll often hear people talking about potential side affects of medication, so maybe you're taking a medication to help your headache, but it also makes you nauseous, it makes your stomach hurt. That would be a side affect of the medication. Special affects, those are techniques used in producing movies or TV that are done by computers these days. A startling, striking, or stunning affect, this means the result is surprising. A subtle affect, this means the result is present but a little hard to notice. The overall affect, meaning the general affect. A domino affect, this means one thing causes another, which causes another, which causes another, etc. Like dominoes knocking each other over. And a ripple affect, this is similar, meaning results that continue to spread, like when you throw a stone into water and the ripples just spread out. So those were a lot of adjective collocations with affect, but we also have common collocations with verbs. So when something causes a result, we use these verbs, bring about, have, or produce an affect. And when someone is impacted by a result, then we use these verbs, feel, experience, or suffer from an affect. Suffer from is negative. Scientists often assess, determine, estimate, examine, measure, or study the affects of one thing on another. If we want to make a result bigger, we would compound, maximize, or magnify the affect. And if we want to make a result smaller, we would try to cushion, lessen, mitigate, reduce, or soften the affect. Another set of verbs is used when we take action to produce the opposite result. Counter, counteract, offset, or cancel out the affect. We can talk about how long an affect lasts, how long it continues in time. And when it stops, the affect wears off. Well, that was a lot of information. But now you know when to use affect with an A and affect with an E, as well as many of their common collocations. I'd encourage you to try writing your own example sentences with affect and effect using the correct word. And if you want to practice more, remember to download that free PDF with the quizzes from today's lesson by clicking on the link under the video. It's a great way to review everything and practice using affect and effect correctly. And if you'd like to take the next step in learning the differences between confusing English words, check out my e-book of 600 plus confusing English words explained. You can find it at EspressoEnglish.net. Thanks for joining me, and I'll talk to you next time.