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Fri 6 Jan, 2017 02:23 am
I'm confused on when I should use these words. Can you please tell me if this sentence is correct:
"I care about the issues that affect you and how they affect you."
I remember this lesson from school like yesterday. Affect is almost always used as a verb. Effect is almost always used as a noun. There are however exceptions for both. Affect is used as a noun to mean something along the lines of mood or mental state. The use of affect is very uncommon, even in academic writing, and many consider its use pretentious. Instead of being said like uh-fect as is the case for the verb version (in American English), it is pronounced with a short a like in the word ant: a-fect.
As a verb, affect means to influence or produce/cause a change. Michael Phelps significantly affect the US swim team's gold medal count at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
As said before, effect is almost always used as a noun to mean something along the lines of consequence - the only difference being that effect has a neutral connotation while consequence connotes something negative.
An example of effect as a noun in a sentence is: The birthday's party effect was outstanding; all the kids left it with big smiles on their faces.
Unlike affect used as a noun, effect used as a verb is fairly common. You'll find its use in a lot of political writings. As a verb, effect means to bring about or achieve. Normally, people use it talk about something perceived as good. For example, the school's vice principal effected a change to mold the existing school culture to fit the new demographic.
Hope that's helpful. To answer your question: your sentence is good! When used as a verb, effect won't be followed by a pronoun or person's names, which is the case of "you" in your sentence.
That should be affected not affect in my Michael Phelps example.
@perennialloner,
Quote:Affect is used as a noun to mean something along the lines of mood or mental state. The use of affect is very uncommon, even in academic writing, and many consider its use pretentious. Instead of being said like uh-fect as is the case for the verb version (in American English), it is pronounced with a short a like in the word ant: a-fect.
I don't know about anywhere else, but affect as a noun is a common word in British medical terminology, e.g. a disorder of affect could be depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety disorder to name a few. The word is not at all 'pretentious', and is pronounced identically to the verb.
Generally speaking "affect" is a verb and "effect" is a noun.
Affect can be used as a noun in regards to "affectation" and common usage is slowly but surely turning effect into a verb.
If you apply the general rule, you will be OK most of the time.
@centrox,
Maybe in the UK. As for pronunciation, in America affect as a noun is pronounced differently as I explained. I was taught that just last school year in my English class. Perhaps my teacher is wrong, but I don't think so.