Less common is a verb meaning “to create”: “I’m trying to effect a change in the way we purchase widgets.” No wonder people are confused. The more common one is a noun: “When I left the stove on, the effect was that the house filled with smoke.” When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it. The real problem arises when people confuse the first spelling with the second: “effect.” This too can be two different words. In this sort of context, “affect” means “to make a display of or deliberately cultivate.”Īnother unusual meaning is indicated when the word is accented on the first syllable (AFF-ect), meaning “emotion.” In this case the word is used mostly by psychiatrists and social scientists-people who normally know how to spell it. Speaking with a borrowed French accent or ostentatiously wearing a large diamond ear stud might be an affectation. Occasionally a pretentious person is said to affect an artificial air of sophistication. When “affect” is accented on the final syllable (a-FECT), it is usually a verb meaning “have an influence on”: “The million-dollar donation from the industrialist did not affect my vote against the Clean Air Act.”
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