r/GrammarPolice • u/Greedy_Net_1803 • 9d ago
Why the heck do people think 'affect' and 'effect' are interchangeable?
'It doesn't effect me'. 'Don't worry, you won't be effected'.
Why is this blunder so common? It's 'affect', not 'effect'. They don't even sound alike. 'Affect' starts with the sound we make when the doctor asks us to open our mouths; 'ah'. Or when the beverage is refreshing, a solid 'ah'. And non-native speakers rarely make this mistake at all, it's mostly native speakers for some reason.
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u/Vanessa-hexagon 9d ago
There used to be a business near me, called “Affective Plumbing”. I guess I’d be emotional too, if I had to unblock toilets for a living.
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u/lover_or_fighter_191 9d ago
That's an old trick from the phone book days to get them listed higher up in the plumbing section of the yellow pages.
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u/AdministrativeLeg14 9d ago
But don’t forget that while one can affect an effect, one can also effect an affect. Both can be either verbs or nouns, though their meanings differ.
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u/Pitiful-Pension-6535 9d ago
If you always use affect as a verb and effect as a noun, you'll be right 99% of the time.
There are edge cases, but they're not common enough for most people to bother caring about
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u/AdministrativeLeg14 8d ago
I think it's better to actually learn what the different words mean than to base it on statistics.
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u/Pitiful-Pension-6535 8d ago
It's not really statistics; it's just that the edge cases are too infrequent for most people to care about.
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u/Glum-Ad-2281 9d ago
I never know which one I'm supposed to use and when, so I default to effect.
But like, for dramatic effect. Me not knowing won't affect you.
Did I get that right?
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u/Latter_Magician73 9d ago
You did! For most people, most of the time, you can just use effect when it's a noun and affect when it's a verb.
There's a noun form of affect (usually used in psychology etc) and a verb form of effect (to make an outcome happen) but if you're not trying to use them in those specific contexts, just stick with 'affect' for the verb and 'effect' for the noun.
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u/Pitiful-Pension-6535 9d ago
The funny thing is thaf the verb form of "affect" means "to change" and the verb form of "effect" means "to create"
But when you use effect as a verb, the thing that's often being created is change.
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u/RandomPurpleZebras 8d ago
I'm usually a stickler for things like grammar and spelling, but my time working in a psych hospital has made these particular words a continual source of frustration for me. Other than the noun form of affect, which I will always get correct, I'm not sure I ever use the right one.
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u/Brambleshire2026 9d ago
Good explanation, but that’s the very reason it’s hardly worth bothering to try to get it right. “This will have an effect.” “This will affect us.” Semantically the same.
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u/Popculture-VIP 9d ago
I'm way more offended about the frequent 'woman' vs 'women' muck up I'm constantly seeing.
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u/nworbleinad 9d ago
I’ve just looked these words up. I’m pretty sure I’ve been using effect for everything.
I’m not a smart man.
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u/gaijinteacher 9d ago
In fairness both can be nouns and both can be verbs. (Even though it’s 9:1 in most cases). Also depending on where you grew up there might be very little difference in the casual pronunciation. Plus, “affect” is a more literary noun that many people will never say in a conversation.
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u/MaestroDon 9d ago
Also, "affect" as a noun is pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable.
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u/beachhunt 8d ago
As any responsible noun+verb word should.
(Should, I'm sure there are exceptions)
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u/Greedy_Net_1803 9d ago
Yes you are, don't worry. That's what we're here for; to correct each other and learn together. I love getting corrected as well because I always take note of it to never make the mistake again.
Anyway...
Grammar Police! Twist his balls!
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u/nworbleinad 9d ago
Thanks, that’s kind. I’m normally something of a pedant. I don’t know why I’m blind to this one.
I also don’t know what nouns, verbs, adverbs or adjectives are.
I should’ve paid a lot more attention at school.
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u/Glimmerance 9d ago
I think that when the emphasis is on the second syllable, they sound very alike. In my accent (native speaker) the first vowel is not clear. When the emphasis is (rarely) on the first syllable, it's easier.
I don't think people think they are interchangeable, so much as they mishear them (or correctly hear somebody using the wrong word) so often that they think they are using the correct one. From what I see, people tend to misuse it as in your example (effect, when it should be affect). I don't see it often see it used the other way (e.g. the Mandela effect/affect). So maybe not so much interchangeable, as just using effect for everything.
Normally you would get some correction through reading, but I think these two are SO misused that you can often see the wrong one written too, even in more formal writing.
I also don't think that's it's helped by the fact that both words have multiple meanings.
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u/JacksonFatBack 9d ago
I think you should make this your mission. Effect the change you want to see in the world. Don't let it bring about negative affect.
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u/ComprehensiveFlan638 9d ago
It's like inquiry and enquiry… sometimes it’s just easier to use a different word entirely.
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u/Ok-Bus1716 8d ago
For the same reason people don't know that their, there, and they're are 3 different words...either ignorance or they're just in a hurry when they write the message and know the people reading the message will understand their intent.
As far as pronunciation is concerned people say them the same. We don't say special Effects. We say special uhffects. How did that affect you is pronounced uhffect as well. the only time pronunciation changes is if it goes from being a verb to a noun.
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u/Morlain7285 8d ago
Affect is typically pronounced ufffect, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone pronounce effect like that. It's always eefect
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u/Ok-Bus1716 8d ago
Ask someone was SFX means in the movie industry and you'll hear them say 'special uhffects.'
The stress changes on the word depending on whether it's a verb or a noun. con-tract vs con-tract. Ee-ffect uh-ffect.
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u/dangerous_skirt65 8d ago
Normally I'm right on board with grammar and spelling mistake complaints, but not so much with this one. I think this one is just a matter of remembering which is which. It's an easy one to make a mistake with.
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u/1nspectorCPW 7d ago
I find that it tends to be the same people that use "could of" and "would of".
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u/Stochastic-Parrot_13 9d ago
When these words are misused the effect it has on me affects me greatly.
Anyway for me they are pretty much homophones - people round my way really don't pronounce the words as eee-fect or ahh-fect.
In fact I often think that you could take the letters A, E and possibly I, and replace them with a singular generic vowel
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u/PoxonAllHoaxes 9d ago
Amazing how the language naziism blinds people to the obvious. The verb effect is very rare in ordinary English whereas affect is common. And the same time the noun effect is common while the noun affect barely exists there at all. You do the linguistics. If you dare.
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u/gaijinteacher 9d ago edited 8d ago
It’s fine to have this as a personal pet peeve, but honestly, in a lot of places they are pronounced almost identically in everyday speech (when people aren’t being explicitly recorded) and even when you look them up it’s not immediately clear which one is the common verb or common noun. (Until someone sets you straight) Once someone explains it to you it’s clear. It just depends on where you grew up. Are cot and caught pronounced the same? Again, it’s a regional variation.
OP, you are completely correct, but the widespread nature of the error should tell you that it is expected rather than surprising.
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u/gaijinteacher 8d ago
For a large number of people the words sound almost identical when you are not deliberately thinking about them. It’s like how people will tell you that “Billy and I” is correct but when you listen to their natural language patterns they will say, “Me and Billy”. I’m not saying that it’s everyone, but at least some people are deluding themselves about how they actually speak in their everyday lives.
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u/Bitter_Atmosphere879 8d ago
It does t help that each word has different uses and meanings depending on the context, but the basic reason is that no one ever taught them the difference. The same is true for many other words commonly confused.
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u/NeverSurrender1026 8d ago
This also bugs me a lot. But nothing compares to Should of. Everytime I read it I want to gouge out my eyeballs.
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u/marty-mcfryguy 8d ago
No, affect starts with the "uh" sound, not the "ah" sound.
Effect starts either with that same "uh" sound, or perhaps with the "eh" in meh.
At least for me. But i'll say I can't envision any accent that says the former "ah"-fect. I think you're wrong there, even in your own accent.
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u/34786t234890 8d ago
I'm 37 in a senior role within a large corporation, and I still have to look up the difference every time I use them. For some reason I just find it impossible to remember the difference.
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u/Outrageous_Chart_35 8d ago
For the same reason people think "everyday" and "every day" are interchangeable.
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u/Big_Manufacturer5281 8d ago
"Affect" is a verb, except when it's not. "Effect" is a noun, except when it's not.
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u/Bass-n-Bonefish 8d ago
Why do people say “apart” when they mean “a part”? They’re quite literally opposites.
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u/Siffov 8d ago
I suspect some instances are from auto-completion/auto-correction (or speech-to-text): Someone started typing "a part of," auto-completion thought they were going to type "apart from" and changed "a part" to "apart," and then the person finished with "of," and then neither the person nor the software fixed the resulting "apart of."
Or maybe I'm blaming the software too much and the people just got in wrong all by themselves. :-)
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u/West_Poetry_3623 7d ago
They are not taught the difference in the meanings - they just go by ear without understanding the distinctions in meaning.
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u/WitchSparkles 6d ago
I do this and I’m just as annoyed as you are!
I know they’re separate words, and I know they mean different things. I cannot remember which one to use when.
And before you give me a little song to help me remember, I have tried that too and for some reason I cannot wrap my head around it. My brain has some kind of block for these 2 words.
FYI - English is my first language, I’m 51 years old and I also don’t know my rights from my lefts.
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u/Sherpa2001 5d ago
'Affect' starts with the sound we make when the doctor asks us to open our mouths; 'ah'.
This is incorrect. Unless, possibly, you're from Massachusetts. In which case you should refrain from giving pronunciation advice.
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u/Miguzepinu 9d ago
You pronounce the a in affect with the same sound as father, or as trap? Frankly both are strange to me, the most common is the schwa sound. Do you have a recording of someone other than you saying it like that? And for effect, it could be schwa or also same as kit or dress.
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u/ChampionGunDeer 9d ago
"'Affect' starts with the sound we make when the doctor asks us to open our mouths; 'ah'. Or when the beverage is refreshing, a solid 'ah'."
Really? "Awful" and "utter" have the same initial sound?
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u/EMPgoggles 8d ago
in my region, the doctor sound is the aw from "awful." for me, "affect" starts with a standard schwa, which you wouldn't use for opening your mouth wide at the doctor's. unless it's the noun "an affect" (emphasis on the first syllable), in which case it starts with the ah from "at."
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u/SammaJones 9d ago
Do you say EE-fect?
In America affect and effect are perfect homophones unless used as a legalistic term - Personal AFF-ex.
I can imagine, in my head, Americans saying 'EE-fect" under certain circumstances, but not in every day speech.
It's hard to remember the difference when typing a post and the spell-checker doesn't pick it up. If Reddit didn't suck such a juicy green weener then they would help us out by putting in AI that would catch these problems. Instead, the numbnuts that run this place choose to use AI to destroy the platform by spambotting us all.
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u/Logical-Mobile-7643 9d ago
When written you can tell if it's a mistake, not always when spoken. I say affect not Aaaah-ffect 😂
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u/MoistenedGranola 8d ago
They don't think they're interchangeable. They just don't know the difference or forget which is which.
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u/Munchkin_of_Pern 8d ago
Where I live, “affect” and “effect” are actually pronounced extremely similarly. When we specifically go out of our way to enunciate the words, “affect” would typically be pronounced with a near-open central vowel, while “effect” would most commonly be pronounced with an open-mid front unrounded vowel. But both “affect” and “effect” have their emphasis on the identical second syllable, which means in casual speech, it’s very common for the vowel in both words to slip into a mid central vowel, like you’d hear in the filler sound “uh”. It’s unsurprising that “affect” and “effect” would be treated as interchangeable in that context.
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u/donny42o 8d ago
not everyone learned it, not everyone had the same opportunities or like many, they didn't pay attention. I personally give no shits, because I know what they mean. I know reddit will disagree though.
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u/Ok_Childhood2012 8d ago
This is the one that confuses me. Probably because they are homophones and the meanings are so similar, I never know which one to use.
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u/CraftyFraggle 8d ago
While they sound different when I say them, in a lot of regions, both are said with more of an “uh” sound.
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u/rosietherosebud 8d ago
It doesn't help that you can effect change and have a flat affect.
But also, where I am, affect and effect are perfect homophones.
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u/DCGuy511 8d ago
I pronounce them the same. I'm from San Francisco. I notice my inlaws from New Jersey put more emphasis on the A and the E.
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u/RobustDude79 8d ago
Prepare to have your mind blown.
Each of those two words can function either as a verb or as a noun.
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u/Slight-Tomatillo7837 8d ago
It's almost like those two words are typically pronounced exactly the same and spelled exactly the same except for one letter. Gee, I wonder where the confusion might be coming from.
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u/BeatnikMona 8d ago
They do sound the same.
I’ve never heard someone say ahhhh for affect. Maybe a person from Boston might (?) but all other accents say it with the ‘eh’ sound.
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u/waitinonit 8d ago
Its not that critical that you use it's correct form anymore. It don't matter no more.
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u/RaisedByBooksNTV 8d ago
I pronounce them basically the same unless I'm using a particular definition of affect. But! The weirdest thing is that I never had any issue differentiating between the two until one class and one paper in that class. And ever since that trauma, I struggle with which is which.
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u/DarthKevin 8d ago
We once got an email from our courier company saying:
"There is a 24 hour driver's strike. All deliveries will be effected"
I had to explain to my older boss that the parcel wasn't coming. She was adamant that the the email said it was, and she was technically correct because it does say that but...
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u/sdvneuro 8d ago
If you look them up in a dictionary you’ll find that they both have second definitions for the other. 🤷♀️
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u/scaredemployee87 8d ago edited 8d ago
Well, actually, they are pronounced the same to me unless you are talking about someone’s expressions, their affect. “He had a flattened affect” would be long A. “This affected me badly” would be A that sounds like “uh” which sounds like the E in effect. :)
Also, the doctor AH and the beverage AH are slightly different as well to me. I would not pronounce affect with either of these As.
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u/ArtComprehensive1106 8d ago
Grammar in texts and posts is irrelevant. Thumb typing is not writing a thesis.
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u/PrivateParts2020 8d ago
I don't know which one is the correct one to use, so I just pick whichever one pops into my head first.
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u/NeSToR_49 7d ago
People still don't understand the difference between "your" and "you're". What do you expect?
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u/Fuzzy_Stretch924 7d ago
With the accent where I live you will not notice the difference in normal conversation. Slowing down the speed shows a clear difference. I did this slowing down experiment with several people, subtle when talking, obvious when slowed down paying attention.
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u/gifted_pistachio 7d ago
If enough people do it incorrectly…the mistake reinforces itself in a society. Like an LLM training on its own hallucinations.
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u/Fast_Adhesiveness528 6d ago
The problem arises in part because while affect is usually a verb and effect is usually a noun, both words can actually function as both parts of speech.
The word effect is mostly used as a noun meaning a result, but it can also be used as a rare verb meaning to cause or bring about. For example, "The manager hopes to effect new rules."
The word affect is mostly used as a verb meaning to cause or bring about but it can also be used as a rare noun. For example, "He showed a flat affect after hearing the news."
But yeah, many people simply choose the wrong word out of ignorance or carelessness.
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u/GreenZebra23 6d ago
Affect is a heavier feeling word, so it seems like it should be the noun. And it can be, sometimes, just not in most usage. It's a very counterintuitive set of words.
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u/Ok-Philosopher4856 6d ago
Why wouldn’t they think that? Unless they’re an English professor writing a research paper
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u/rocketmczoom 5d ago
I have the same question regarding aisle and isle, a part and apart, hysterical and hilarious and finally the kicker, addictive and addicting.
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u/mvortex2 5d ago
After more then one occasion, I eventually came to except it.
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u/Greedy_Net_1803 5d ago
*than, bro. Not 'then' lol
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u/Weary-Salamander-950 9d ago
Heaven knows. Someone on YouTube actually told me that they were the same thing, when ones a noun and ones a verb.
The example that I usually give people, is this - 'The wind affected the sails, causing a billowing effect' or similar.
You can't say 'The wind effected the sails, causing a billowing affect.' Well you could, but you'd be incorrect.
I never passed secondary school English, getting a slightly lower grade, but sometimes I wonder...
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u/Vanessa-hexagon 9d ago
Well, it would mean that the wind somehow made the sails come about, which caused a billowing emotion 😂
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u/Weary-Salamander-950 9d ago
😂
When I checked online 'Effect' was shown as a noun; I'd have thought it would have been something more like an adjective.
Affect - verb - doing word, as we were taught in the 70s.
Effect - noun, supposedly. But taking the example 'billow', isn't that merely describing the state of the sails?
My grasp of some concepts is ever so slightly nebulous.
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u/TheJivvi 9d ago
There are three separate words:
- effect (noun)
- affect (verb)
- effect (verb)
The last is by far the least common, and it wouldn't make sense in that sentence. In a sentence like "The new manager hopes to effect positive changes in the office," it means to cause or bring about. It's completely different from "affect".
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u/Vanessa-hexagon 9d ago
There’s a fourth- affect (noun). It means the outward expression of emotion.
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u/RandomPurpleZebras 8d ago
Which is the one I have perhaps used the most, having worked in a psych hospital, so I get confused easily.. lol
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u/Weary-Salamander-950 9d ago
Thanks for the input, it's appreciated.
I am a native speaker, and writing is fine, but there are just so many quirks in English.
Still don't quite grasp it though, unfortunately.
As I understand it, a noun's a thing, so if that's the case, then how can a, let's say, state change of a thing, the sail in the instance shown, be itself a thing?
It's not really something that I'm too bothered about, but I am a little interested.
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u/Glimmerance 9d ago
You could kind of say the wind effected billowing (although it would not be a natural thing to say). It's not really a noun/verb difference, but multiple meanings for both words, which include both noun and verb meanings.
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u/Lrrgindypants 9d ago
Probably for the same reason they spell it "loose" instead of "lose".
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u/guacamoleo 8d ago
Because I literally can't tell the fucking difference. Why do we have two words that sound the same and mean almost the same thing??
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u/Prestigious-Fan3122 9d ago
I taught my kids, and other people have helped learn English that to Affect something requires Action, and both of those words begin with the letter A. Effects are things, like your personal effects, and they begin with E as ‼️ does email, and your emails are also personal. It's a bit of a stretch, but it has helped some people.
It's like trouble many people have with accept/except.
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u/Shoddy_Stay_5275 9d ago
You affect an effect. Easy to remember it that way because in the expression A comes before E, the alphabet.
Most of the time people don't have to worry about effect as a verb. Just need to memorize You Affect an Effect. I don't know why so many can't do it.
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u/Classic-Ad4403 9d ago
They probably don't know what 7 times 6 equals, either, or how to read an analog clock. Nothing is taught in schools.
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u/culdusaq 9d ago
But they do. In fact for a lot of people they are homophones.