Watch out, folks. Affect and effect represent one of the trickiest dynamic duos you'll find in the grammar world.
- As a verb, the word affect means to influence in some way. As a noun, it refers to a person's feelings and emotions and how they are displayed.
- The word effect is mostly used as a noun and refers to something caused by something else: hence the common phrase "cause and effect." Though rarely used as a verb, effect can also mean to achieve a certain result.
A general rule of thumb is if the word has an article (a, an, the) in front of it, it should probably be effect. If it's used as a verb, it should probably be affect.
We repeat, probably.