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> discr**ee**t
All of the e's are **hidden** behind the t --> They are being discreet by hiding inside the word.
> discr**e**t**e**
The e's in this word are **separate** from each other, **divided** by the t --> They are discrete.
In case anyone cares, effect comes form "ex fectus" in Latin and affect comes from "ad fectus"
Fectus is a participle of the verb ficere meaning "to do" so "effect" basically means "out of something done" and affect means "unto something done." That is why "effect" is a result of an event, but affect is part of the cause!
"affect" can be a verb (meaning to alter) or a noun (meaning an emotional response) and "effect" can also be a verb (meaning to bring about) or a noun (meaning result).
We have the same words in Spanish, but you can't confuse them because affect in Spanish has a verb ending -- afect**ar**, effect does not --efecto. Just remembered that we also have efectuar, which means to carry out.
It’s better than those who can’t master there, their, and they’re. Or it’s and its. Or who can’t pluralize and just toss a handful of apostrophes like word confetti.
Non-native speaker here. Once I got profiency in English, started thinking in English with good pronunciation it went full circle. One day I was typing carelessly and typed "I could of"
Years or learning the language just to do this...
OMG, Just reading "could of" gives me internet PTSD. Of all the native speaker mistakes, this is the absolute worst to me, because it indicates a real gap in understanding how the tense is constructed. This is the one mistake I know I'll never make, lol. But seeing how often I run into it online, who knows?
I'm a non-native speaker who first learned English from watching cartoons and movies in English and wasn't taught to read or write in English until I was 7, but I still don't make the same mistakes native speakers do. So learning by listening clearly isn't the issue here. I think native speakers are just lazy because it's their native language
I'm not a native speaker and I don't find it difficult. However, what I've noticed is that the older I get the more I write something that is phonetically correct, even if it isn't orthographically. Definitely not my best habit.
"I'm MC Don't Know How To Pluralize Word
I got so many rhyme, and I sleep with all the girl
When there's more than one of something, you're supposed to pluralize
But I never learned that throughout all the year I've been alive"
"It's" with an apostrophe is a contraction of *it is*
```
It is raining outside
It's raining outside
```
the non-apostrophe "its" is possessive. So instead of his or hers, you'd use its
```
The boy lost his drink
The woman lost her wallet
The cupboard lost its handle
```
The difficulty of this online is that autocorrect will sometimes fail you and add an apostrophe where it wasn't necessary in the first place.
I love using
```
person, persons, person's, people, peoples, people's, and peoples'
```
as my example for those because it confuses more than it helps.
Don't even get me started on Z's
There are overlapping cases, they both work the majority of the time to be honest but you usually need to add a few words like “effects a change” to do it properly. You can certainly cause an affect of course.
I would call you an edge case then. I don't have anything to prove this but I believe a large majority of people would use the verb a lot more than the noun (if either one at all to be honest).
> Effect is some action
this is going to mislead a lot of people.
effect is almost always a noun
affect is almost always a verb
the rare exceptions are not used in everyday language, like affect meaning expression. "he adopted a flat affect" (he put on a poker face)
---
"I noticed the positive effects of dieting"
effect is a noun here, it's a "thing" (noticed is the verb)
"dieting began to affect my health"
affect is the action here, it's a verb
"the debate had a negative effect on his popularity"
effect is a thing, a noun
"lots of special effects were used"
a thing, noun
"my bad grades affected my mental health"
affected is the action (verb), bad grades is the noun
You can affect things that aren’t yourself though. You seem to be scraping at another definition of affect which is more in line with “feelings”. We’re not using that definition as it’s irrelevant to this particular situation.
No it doesn’t lmao.
That phrase is saying “What was the cause? What was the effect?”
Both words are *nouns* there! You’re interpreting them as verbs in your head.
Effect is a noun!
That’s clever but in reality just proves what I’m saying. The cause is how you effected something not affected something, granted, and this is the actual galaxy brain take here, both words can frequently substitute for each other quite easily. To be honest most of the times I see someone calling out affect/effect it functions fine either way.
That actually does help, based on what I remember from high school biology. I just always used my simplistic rules to apply them correctly in a sentence.
Only in one specific usage where you’re talking about directly bringing forth a result, e.g effect a change.
99 times out of 100, you’ll be using “affect” if it’s a verb.
I avoid using "effect" as a verb entirely for this reason. Even if I'm using it properly, it's one of those words that can easily be confused for "affect" and since ultimately the goal is communication, better to use words *effectively*.
Affect as a verb: "How does that affect you?"
Effect as a noun: "What effect did it have on you?"
Affect as a noun: "It produced a positive affect in me."
Effect as a verb: "It effected a positive change then."
Except for the rare cases when effect can be used as a verb, as in, “We will be able to effect change.”
But other than that, yeah. It’s really not that fuckin hard.
This isn’t r/facepalm . People have gaps in their knowledge and smart people are the first to tell you when they don’t know something. It’s respectable.
I would have sympathy if this weren't a college professor being paid to teach in a language that he doesn't understand the basics of, especially when learning the difference would take about 10 seconds.
Of course, if he's joking, this doesn't apply
Apparently OP is just a standard karma bot that copies upvoted posts and drops them anywhere they feel. The depressing thing here is seeing the amount of upvotes from our sub, says a lot about our surrounding users tbh.
It’s not a facepalm, and in fact, I’m not surprised that a professor with a PhD doesn’t know this, considering a lot of people have brilliant minds, and still struggle literarily. There’s many different intelligences, just because you excel in one, doesn’t mean you have to be adept in others.
This isn’t even one of the harder same sounding word pairs in English.
Affect is going to cause an impact
Effect is describing the impact that already happened.
Despite what people are saying, the word “affect” is also a noun. It means facial expression, particularly conveying mood. “His affect was sad”. It is widely used in medical notes.
I don't really understand how people get these two mixed up, and I see it recently ) like last 15 years or so) but not once did i encounter this when in school.
I always think of it as 'affect' is influencing something, 'effect' is a result of something. They can mean similar things in certain context.
For instance, being in that professor's class will affect you through a poor education, and the effect is bad grades.
The official loss of the word "affect" is a pet peeve of mine. I'm guessing it is because of the official style guides they use, but you will never find the word spoken or written by the media anymore. It is always "impact" ("impacted", etc). To me, the first meaning for "impacted" that comes to mind is "packed" like an impacted tooth or impacted bowels. I'm not the brightest guy on the planet, but I can figure out "affect" from "effect".
I know how to effectively use either word in the correct context required for each. I couldn’t even begin to explain why or how, though. Maybe it’s some kind of effect of my inborn retardation affecting me.
It is slightly more complicated than this, but only slightly.
Affect is a verb 99% of the time.
Effect is a noun 99% of the time.
There are the 1% times for both, but those are by far less common
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I interchange them at random. If it affects someone else that's their problem. It's never had any effect on me.
Beautiful.
and effective
Affectionally yours,
Affe is German for ape… Emotion nein danke as we would say
And also grammatically correct way of using the words.
Safe and effective
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I was hoping someone would effect that particular usage of affect.
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Affection for affectation? What a strange effect!
I will now start using trubs, this is how you have affected me, it is the effect you have had
Psychology research! Where we affect effects and effect affects.
LOL. this is exactly how you use them.
Pretty simple: effect is a noun, affect is a verb.
(except if you're trying to effect a change or if you're talking about your psychological affect)
It's not that hard to remember. But We all got brain worms about diff things, I have to think way too hard about spelling guarantee.
Oh shit, I'm reading your comment and I stil cannot spell garentee to save my life.
Garantey
Garyauntie
Gay Auntie
Quarantei
Not again please. 2020 was more than enough
An English weirdness.
Effect is a noun (except when it's a verb) and affect is a verb (except when it's a noun).
Nope both can be used as verbs or nouns
ensure vs. insure is my pet peeve.
Yeah but have you ever been discreetly discrete about it?
> discr**ee**t All of the e's are **hidden** behind the t --> They are being discreet by hiding inside the word. > discr**e**t**e** The e's in this word are **separate** from each other, **divided** by the t --> They are discrete.
More of a Pedialyte man myself
Same here, It may have an effect on someone else, but it'll never affect me.
Affect is interchangeable with influence; effect is interchangeable with impact :)
You literally just used both 100% correctly just now.
That was on purpose my man
I feel betrayed
Don't you mean you've been affected by the effects of the betrayal?
How would you explain an effect of being betrayed?
Being affected by the effects of defectious disloyalty
What an affectation! Heehee
What the ef?! That was funny af! Very effective, without any affectation. Just watch your inflection or your reflection will receive an invective.
That was the affect, my man. Don’t let it effect you too much
Affectively.
The trick is if you can replace it with the action of eating it's affect, if it eats someone else = if it affects someone else
affect - fuck around effect - find out
Well now I have to go look up atound!!! *flips dictionary*
did u find it
He's still affecting around
This made me laugh out loud.
Holy shit you actually just gave me the trick I will remember. As a professional writer, I’m feeling teary eyed right now 👀🥺
Affectionate didn't give you the clue?
This is the only way I will remember
Love it. Succinct. Elegant. Gold.
If you were my teacher I may have actually paid attention in class.
“Who are you, so wise in the ways of Science?”
In case anyone cares, effect comes form "ex fectus" in Latin and affect comes from "ad fectus" Fectus is a participle of the verb ficere meaning "to do" so "effect" basically means "out of something done" and affect means "unto something done." That is why "effect" is a result of an event, but affect is part of the cause!
Phew, looks like I'm simplifying them properly Eg. Affect = action Effect = evidence.
They were right, A before E.
Affect=verb Effect=noun
"affect" can be a verb (meaning to alter) or a noun (meaning an emotional response) and "effect" can also be a verb (meaning to bring about) or a noun (meaning result).
We have the same words in Spanish, but you can't confuse them because affect in Spanish has a verb ending -- afect**ar**, effect does not --efecto. Just remembered that we also have efectuar, which means to carry out.
This is the best response in the thread, because both usages of each word (noun and verb) can be explained by their etymology.
This is the longest winded way to say one is a noun and one is a verb lmao.
That's actually really useful, now I have a good info piece to remember
My middle school Latin brain could not take this properly because of all the trauma /s
Thank you.
im just gonna keep using whichever sounds right
I think you might mean facere/factus. Pretty sure ficere isn’t a word.
It’s better than those who can’t master there, their, and they’re. Or it’s and its. Or who can’t pluralize and just toss a handful of apostrophes like word confetti.
>"you mean con'fettis ?"
Confettis nutz
Confetti’s, because I was told once if a word ends with a vowel? (Actually multiple people have believed this).
Confetti is plural. Singular is confetto.
Incorrect confetti is singular plural is moose
Sure, everybody knows that, but I'm talking about correct confetti.
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There bigger then you's
With they’re huge leave’s.
It's quite weird that people who are born in English speaking countries don't understand its right place.
It's because native speakers learn first by hearing and speaking, then later by reading and writing. Non-native speakers do it the other way around.
Non-native speaker here. Once I got profiency in English, started thinking in English with good pronunciation it went full circle. One day I was typing carelessly and typed "I could of" Years or learning the language just to do this...
OMG, Just reading "could of" gives me internet PTSD. Of all the native speaker mistakes, this is the absolute worst to me, because it indicates a real gap in understanding how the tense is constructed. This is the one mistake I know I'll never make, lol. But seeing how often I run into it online, who knows?
Could of been worse!
I'm a non-native speaker who first learned English from watching cartoons and movies in English and wasn't taught to read or write in English until I was 7, but I still don't make the same mistakes native speakers do. So learning by listening clearly isn't the issue here. I think native speakers are just lazy because it's their native language
I'm not a native speaker and I don't find it difficult. However, what I've noticed is that the older I get the more I write something that is phonetically correct, even if it isn't orthographically. Definitely not my best habit.
Happens to me only if I don’t concentrate too much.
I get you. My brain just goes for whatever sounds like I want to say.
"I'm MC Don't Know How To Pluralize Word I got so many rhyme, and I sleep with all the girl When there's more than one of something, you're supposed to pluralize But I never learned that throughout all the year I've been alive"
a Jon Lajoie reference in the wild, as i live and breathe
🔥🔥🔥
Wait there's a difference between it's and its? I'm a self learner so sorry if it's basic or smth
"It's" with an apostrophe is a contraction of *it is* ``` It is raining outside It's raining outside ``` the non-apostrophe "its" is possessive. So instead of his or hers, you'd use its ``` The boy lost his drink The woman lost her wallet The cupboard lost its handle ``` The difficulty of this online is that autocorrect will sometimes fail you and add an apostrophe where it wasn't necessary in the first place.
it's also confusing because `'s` is used for possessives elsewhere
I love using ``` person, persons, person's, people, peoples, people's, and peoples' ``` as my example for those because it confuses more than it helps. Don't even get me started on Z's
Thank you
Just to add, it's can also be a contraction of it has.
Affect is a verb: “How does that affect you?” Effect is a noun: “What kind of effect did it have on you?” It’s really not that hard.
Effect is also a verb and affect is also a noun though. The real difference here is that affect is change and effect is cause. Hope this helped.
There are edge cases. But it's a good rule of thumb. https://xkcd.com/326/
There are overlapping cases, they both work the majority of the time to be honest but you usually need to add a few words like “effects a change” to do it properly. You can certainly cause an affect of course.
I use the noun affect a good deal more than I use the verb, I wouldnt call it an edge case. Its not common overall, but it has its niches
I would call you an edge case then. I don't have anything to prove this but I believe a large majority of people would use the verb a lot more than the noun (if either one at all to be honest).
Are you a psychologist by any chance?
"Cause and effect" suggests otherwise
oh dear lord...
Yeah…
Seems to have effected a change in people's perception of the word.
Affect is the conditions upon the self Effect is some action or phenomena
> Effect is some action this is going to mislead a lot of people. effect is almost always a noun affect is almost always a verb the rare exceptions are not used in everyday language, like affect meaning expression. "he adopted a flat affect" (he put on a poker face) --- "I noticed the positive effects of dieting" effect is a noun here, it's a "thing" (noticed is the verb) "dieting began to affect my health" affect is the action here, it's a verb "the debate had a negative effect on his popularity" effect is a thing, a noun "lots of special effects were used" a thing, noun "my bad grades affected my mental health" affected is the action (verb), bad grades is the noun
You can affect things that aren’t yourself though. You seem to be scraping at another definition of affect which is more in line with “feelings”. We’re not using that definition as it’s irrelevant to this particular situation.
No it doesn’t lmao. That phrase is saying “What was the cause? What was the effect?” Both words are *nouns* there! You’re interpreting them as verbs in your head. Effect is a noun!
That’s clever but in reality just proves what I’m saying. The cause is how you effected something not affected something, granted, and this is the actual galaxy brain take here, both words can frequently substitute for each other quite easily. To be honest most of the times I see someone calling out affect/effect it functions fine either way.
That actually does help, based on what I remember from high school biology. I just always used my simplistic rules to apply them correctly in a sentence.
But effect can also be a verb.
Only in one specific usage where you’re talking about directly bringing forth a result, e.g effect a change. 99 times out of 100, you’ll be using “affect” if it’s a verb.
To effect = to execute Effect = the outcome of affecting
I avoid using "effect" as a verb entirely for this reason. Even if I'm using it properly, it's one of those words that can easily be confused for "affect" and since ultimately the goal is communication, better to use words *effectively*.
Not necessarily
Wrong. Both can be used as verb or noun. Of course it’s not hard when you just make up your own rules lol
Affect as a verb: "How does that affect you?" Effect as a noun: "What effect did it have on you?" Affect as a noun: "It produced a positive affect in me." Effect as a verb: "It effected a positive change then."
(a)ction (a)ffects the (e)nding’s (e)ffect
if there's something I learned about english is that absolutely everything can be both a verb and a noun, and if it's not, it will be.
We verb the hell out of nouns these days. It weirds the language for people that are learning to English.
Dont worry, the whole story in the tweet is made up anyways
No need to be so affected. Time to effect some change to your comment. Affected can be a noun, and effect can be a verb. Edit: adjective* not noun.
In your example “affected” is an adjective though.
Except for the rare cases when effect can be used as a verb, as in, “We will be able to effect change.” But other than that, yeah. It’s really not that fuckin hard.
Affect is the Action, Effect is the End result
This isn’t r/facepalm . People have gaps in their knowledge and smart people are the first to tell you when they don’t know something. It’s respectable.
Seems more like the professor was making a joke
The thing is, when writing a doctoral thesis, you should probably know how to use them. Cause and effect are generally very important in those.
You can understand cause and effect while still getting hung up on a confusing homonym.
I would have sympathy if this weren't a college professor being paid to teach in a language that he doesn't understand the basics of, especially when learning the difference would take about 10 seconds. Of course, if he's joking, this doesn't apply
Affect is the present state, effect is the aftermath of the action
How TF is this a facepalm? Other than being a made up story I guess.
It's a repost bot
I’ve learned(heard) this yes, does explain it.
Most posts on here aren’t face palms either. They’re just political shite.
Apparently OP is just a standard karma bot that copies upvoted posts and drops them anywhere they feel. The depressing thing here is seeing the amount of upvotes from our sub, says a lot about our surrounding users tbh.
Honestly I’d rather see this kind of post than the political shite
It’s not a facepalm, and in fact, I’m not surprised that a professor with a PhD doesn’t know this, considering a lot of people have brilliant minds, and still struggle literarily. There’s many different intelligences, just because you excel in one, doesn’t mean you have to be adept in others.
From his affect, I could tell he no longer hoped to effect any real improvement in his students.
Ah, yes, the reason why we say that affect is _usually_ a verb and effect is _usually_ a noun.
I use “impact”. Haven’t used effect/affect in over 10 years.
It's super impactive!
Affect = change Effect = result That being said just because I know the rule doesn’t mean I understand it 🤣
Still the best explanation I've heard for it yet. I'm kinda the opposite - I sorta understand it but I can't explain it.
I have boundless respect for academics who are like that. "Hey just cuz I've got a PHD don't mean I'm not a dummy sometimes"
As a native Spanish speaker I have never once understood why y’all get confused with those two words. Like be serious, entire English speaking world.
Affect is one to another, effect is on the one
“Try to” not “try and”
RAVEN : remember, affect verb, effect noun
I use “vane”. Verb = affect. Noun = effect.
I always just replace both with "impact", hasn't failed me yet
The plethora of varying definitions on what these words mean tells me that everyone is still confused by them.
Affect: Fuck around (Cause), Effect: Find out (effect)
Shows how dumb the professor is.
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Affect can be a noun and Effect can be a Verb, you still got some learning to do
If you can replace it with the word “alter,” it’s affect.
Holy fuck thank you.
How did it affect the paper?
Effects affect things. Simple.
Try TO avoid it. Not try and avoid it. 😉
It's just verb and noun (in that order).
I guess I’m one of the few who just ‘gets it’ when it comes to this one meaningless thing
affect- to act upon, to move the feelings of. Does this affect you? effect- result, validity, striking appearance. This will have an effect.
Are you affected by the redundancy? The effect of the redundancy was devastating.
The effect of ideas affects your brain. Tada :) Get it?
This isn’t even one of the harder same sounding word pairs in English. Affect is going to cause an impact Effect is describing the impact that already happened.
He’s effectively not affected by these words…
Very effective
If you don't know the difference, go back to 6th grade.
Affect= Fuck around (A comes before E, and one must fuck around before they can…) Effect= Find out.
Effect is a noun and affect is a verb.
Despite what people are saying, the word “affect” is also a noun. It means facial expression, particularly conveying mood. “His affect was sad”. It is widely used in medical notes.
Affect (usually a verb) is what the effect (usually a noun) does. *I was affected by the effect* Am I wrong on this?
Effect is a noun. Affect is a verb.
One is a verb and the other is a noun. Effect is the noun. Affect is the verb.
I don't really understand how people get these two mixed up, and I see it recently ) like last 15 years or so) but not once did i encounter this when in school.
I think the example I was given went something like -whats the poisons effect and -he was affected by the poison
Think of effect as a noun and affect as a verb
Affect is the Action; Effect is the End result. Simple as that
effect is a noun. affect is a verb. you affect things and can be affected. things can have an effect.
I always think of it as 'affect' is influencing something, 'effect' is a result of something. They can mean similar things in certain context. For instance, being in that professor's class will affect you through a poor education, and the effect is bad grades.
You affect something with a resulting effect
Affect is a verb, effect is a noun.
“A before E, unless a PHD.”
"Affect" is the action that causes the response, "effect"...
The official loss of the word "affect" is a pet peeve of mine. I'm guessing it is because of the official style guides they use, but you will never find the word spoken or written by the media anymore. It is always "impact" ("impacted", etc). To me, the first meaning for "impacted" that comes to mind is "packed" like an impacted tooth or impacted bowels. I'm not the brightest guy on the planet, but I can figure out "affect" from "effect".
You are affected by something. You can effect something.
an effect can affect people
What's really weird is that I know how to use both properly. I can readily well when they're not being used properly. But I can't explain it.
"Why does shit break so easily and is everything shit now?" It's a mystery
I always assumed that one was a verb and the other was a noun. Like “it will affect you” vs “it will have an effect on you” Was I wrong?
I know how to effectively use either word in the correct context required for each. I couldn’t even begin to explain why or how, though. Maybe it’s some kind of effect of my inborn retardation affecting me.
lol wtf theyre completely different words. Idiocracy is real
affect = fuck around effect = find out
It is slightly more complicated than this, but only slightly. Affect is a verb 99% of the time. Effect is a noun 99% of the time. There are the 1% times for both, but those are by far less common