However, most of the time, you can disregard these meanings and stick with the ‘effect is a noun and affect is a verb’ rule.

‘The rise in oil price will affect transport costs.’Ĭareful readers may have noted that we said this was ‘almost always’ true – and ain’t that always the case with English? There are indeed exceptions to the rule.Įffect can also be a verb, meaning ‘to cause to occur, to bring about, to accomplish’.Īffect can also mean ‘to put on the appearance of’, as in ‘he affected anger’.Īnd, even more obscurely, in psychiatry, affect can also be used as a noun, as in ‘she exhibited a flat affect’.

Effect is defined as a change, result, or consequence of some action or event. ‘One of the effects of the rise in oil price will be to increase transport costs.’ Now that you know that affect is always used as a verb, we can move on to when to use effect. ‘The rise in oil price will have an effect on transport costs.’ So here’s how to get affect and effect straight.Įffect is a noun and means ‘a result or a consequence’ or the way one thing acts upon anotherĪffect is a verb and means ‘to have an effect on’ If you mix up your words, it can affect a reader’s opinion of you – and that, in turn, can have a detrimental effect on your business. Affect simply means to have an effect or influence on i.e., to cause something to change in some way.

I have an affect or effect on you