Affected vs. Effected: Essential Differences between Effected vs. Affected

 

What is the difference between affected vs. effected? While the list of easily confused words is a big one, one of the pairs that causes most of the problems even for native speakers and people who’ve been learning English for many years is Affected vs Effected.

Affected vs. Effected

Effected vs. Affected Difference

With these two verb forms having only one letter different and being pronounced almost exactly in the same way, it’s no wonder that it leads to confusion.

So, what is the difference in meanings? AFFECTED means “created an effect on, changed in some way”. When we say that something affected something, we mean that the subject made some kind of impact on the object. EFFECTED, on the other hand, means “produced something, brought about”. Therefore, if something effected something, the other way of saying this is that the subject caused something to happen.

Examples:

• The country has been badly AFFECTED by recession.
• The president EFFECTED several changes in the company.

Learn more with the difference between Affect vs Effect. 

When to Use Affected or Effected

Let’s say that a high school student has been playing videogames a lot lately, and this has significantly worsened his grades. Which is the right verb to use? Because the fact that he played videogames has changed his grades, the correct sentence will be, “The student’s video game playing has affected his academic performance”.

Look at a different example: let’s say that there is a financial crisis in a country. In order to solve the issue, the government has created some new laws. For the sake of the example, it doesn’t matter which laws these are. The only thing that matters is that in this case, we should use the verb “effected” because the government “produced” the laws. So, the sentence will be, “The government effected new laws to stop the financial crisis”.

There is a general rule that will help you remember which word needs to be used when. Things that already exist are affected. However, things that need to be created, that didn’t exist before, are usually effected.

Affected vs. Effected Examples

• If a war breaks out, many other countries will be affected.
• There was a lot of heat, and it affected our relationship.
• The whole world would be affected by a nuclear war.
• The tax increases have affected us all.
• The ordeal has affected both her mental and physical health.
• The performance test of geophone is effected by many factors.
• The reform was effected.
• The transfer of power was effected swiftly and peacefully.
• They effected their escape in the middle of the night.
• The new hairdo effected a startling change in her appearance.

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Affected vs. Effected: Essential Differences between Effected vs. Affected

Affected or Effected: How to Use Affected vs Effected in Sentences