When EFFECT is used as a verb, it means 'to provoke' or 'to produce', as in: 'The President wanted to EFFECT a change in policy.' (Note: If he wanted to AFFECT a change, he would be just wanting to have some sort of influence when he wants to EFFECT the change, he wants to cause the change, to bring it about.)ģ. There was a rather famous play called 'The EFFECT of gamma rays on man-in-the-moon marigolds', for instance.

As for EFFECT, this one is more commonly used as a noun rather than a verb in common parlance. Yes, friends, the word AFFECT is probably used in common parlance more often as a verb than it is as a noun, as in: 'The hot weather AFFECTS me badly.' But this word does have a nominal use, too: 'When I am super-tired, I may show an absence of AFFECT.' In the former case, the verb AFFECTS can be replaced by INFLUENCES in the latter case, the noun can be replaced by EMOTION.Ģ. Now, I have some comments on people's comments:ġ. Knowing the Latin sources of these two words should indeed help anyone who might want to use them. If you would both use and teach the verb 'to effect', why? The point of teaching is to improve students' usage, in meaning, skills, and grammatico-lexically, without having them waste too much energy on rare usages, inaccuracies, or inapplicable practices. Unless the student is writing or reading psychological works, I do not see how this usage would be helpful, so I would teach it only using discretion. On the other hand, the noun 'affect' I would use in connection with the idea of 'affection' or emotion. So because I have not used and would not use it, I would not teach it. As a graduate student I cannot recall using effect as a verb, and in my readings I never saw it make a point clearer. My answer, though I'd rarely go this far on this rabbit trail, is that I rarely see 'to effect' except in connection with 'to effect change', for which I would greatly prefer to use 'cause' or 'change'. To get into questions of what is possible and in which contexts, finally progressing to when should someone use 'effect' as a verb or 'affect' as a noun, is likely to be a wasted exercise both for myself and for the student. Lucy, it appears to me, is confused about the basic difference.

Which is correct: the dictionary definitions (and if so, which dictionary), academic usage, or common usage?

No effect on me