![]() The new wage offer affected our willingness to compromise on other issues, and we were able to effect a settlement within a few hours. Claire Cook offers an example in which both words are used correctly as verbs: Garner adds, “But as a verb, effect means ‘to bring about produce’” (26). ![]() Yet this rule, which is widely taught to help students differentiate between the two words, is not comprehensive. “In ordinary usage,” however, according to Bryan Garner, “ affect is always a verb it means ‘to influence to have an effect on.’ Effect, as suggested by its use in that definition, is primarily a noun meaning ‘result’ or ‘consequence.’ To affect something is to have an effect on it” (26). The “family tease” appeared well-intended, but its power (see “Effect”) was felt keenly.īy labeling this definition of affect “psychology,” the dictionary indicates that its use is specialized. ![]() Gopnik is using affect in the sense Merriam-Webster describes as “a set of observable manifestations of an experienced emotion: the facial expressions, gestures, postures, vocal intonations, etc., that typically accompany an emotion” (“Affect”). Yet the sentence employs both affect and effect correctly as nouns. It was a family tease, and, like all family teases, was well-meaning in its affect and sharp-edged in its effect. For example, Google will underline “affect” in blue-its marker for “words that are deemed to be grammatical flubs” (Lanaria)-if you paste this sentence by Adam Gopnik into a Gmail message: You may have been taught that affect is a verb and effect is a noun-and so may the folks who created your grammar checker.
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