This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2408, Effect or Effect, How to Avoid this Common English Mistake.
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Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American hosts Aubrey Carter the IELTS wiz and Lindsey McMahon the English adventurer Coming to you from Arizona and Colorado USA.
And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week go to allearsenglish .com forward slash subscribe Two of the toughest words in English are effect and affect.
It's not always easy to know which one to use.
Today, get our top native English tips.
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Hello Aubrey, happy Thursday, we're recording today on a Thursday.
How's it going? Happy to see you, Lindsay.
How are you? Good, good.
Doing great. Aubrey, here's a question for you.
You ready? So I'm curious about your style.
So when something doesn't go according to plan or your plan for that day, does it affect your mood or are you able to roll with it?
What's your style? That is a great question.
I feel like in general, I'm able to roll with the punches, right?
If something comes up, I don't really let it affect my mood, but it really depends.
I'm more, my mood is more affected by like, my children's behavior or, or if something really terrible happens, if there were like a medical emergency and suddenly that's probably going to affect my mood, but minor things.
I don't think so. What about you?
Well, I think that makes sense.
Yeah. I think, uh, I might be a little more rigid than you are because I mean, you have four kids.
You're you've learned to be flexible, been forced, been forced that, you know, the day's not going to go as you plan it.
Right. That's true.
But no, I've always been a pretty laid back person especially when I travel, I'm definitely not rigid, but I don't need certain things to happen.
Sometimes you got very serendipitous moments when you're traveling and something doesn't happen according to plan.
That's smart when you're traveling to be able to be more spontaneous and take advantage of whatever might happen.
I love that. This is interesting.
You'll notice in the question Lindsey asked me, we have this verb, effect.
Does it affect your mood?
We were asked a great question from YouTube, likely one that many of you either have or have thought about because effect and effect in English spelled differently, different meanings sound exactly the same, so this is really tricky.
Yeah, this is a good one.
It's a classic question and a classic confusing point, right?
So I'm going to go ahead and read our listener's question or viewer's question.
Shynar Ghaffour asks, Thanks a lot for your lessons.
I have a question. when should I use effect and when should I use effect right and the first one within a effect and the second one with an E of fact yes yes and I do want to remind our listeners we have an entire YouTube channel so if you prefer to consume this show by video that's an option for you so go over to youtube type in all ears English and hit that subscribe button immediately but if you prefer podcast hit follow on the podcast all right yes and that's a great place to leave us comments like this one.
Leave us your questions.
We get a lot of questions for the episodes there on YouTube.
Yes. We and we read them all.
We put them in our big list and if it's a good question, we feature it like this one.
So let's dive into it, Aubrey.
Yeah. So this is tricky.
Unfortunately, these sound the same, which really makes it difficult when we're writing to know which to choose.
We have to think about the meaning.
So we're going to dive into that and then we're going to share because these both do have different meanings, one of which is pronounced differently.
So we're diving into all of that today.
So stay to the end.
Yeah. It sounds like a big plan here.
All right. So let's start with the first one affect as of, is a verb, right?
The effect, what kind of affect are we talking about first?
Aubrey? This is the verb starts.
It was with an a, a F F E C T.
This means to have an influence on someone or something.
So like our conversation at the top of the episode does what happens throughout the day affect your mood?
Because in that sentence, affect is a verb.
Does it, you know, change your mood?
Would it be altered?
There we would spell it with an A, affect.
Yes. So, how will this affect my day, like we said, or don't let it affect you.
You know? For example, if you're someone that reads the news and gets really thrown off, right?
That could be hard right now.
Exactly right. I have to just avoid the news because it is going to affect me yes exactly so what affects you this is really important to keep in mind this is a verb ok and when you're writing this is the best way to know how to spell it which one to use because if you're just hearing it spoken they sound exactly the same for most English speakers I say I say them exactly the same yes exactly and then when it comes to the noun form well the noun word it's a different word right we're not talking about forms here it's entirely different word effect with an E.
Yeah. But usually when we say it in a sentence, it just sounds like effect.
So unfortunately they sound the same.
I know. This is a change, which is a result or consequence of an action or another cause.
So for example, what is the effect of long -term isolation?
Good question. Very interesting.
Smoking has many harmful effects and we know that, now based on science, right?
Exactly. Right? So for both of these it would be written with an E, E -F -F -E -C -T and when you're writing and you have to even native English speakers have to sometimes think as this is a common native error as well because they sound the same sometimes you have to take just a second to think about how is this used in the sentence is it being used as a verb then it should be an A is it being used as a noun okay then I write it with an E yeah I mean frankly I still have to stop and think about it right I never make the mistake anymore I used to but I do have to stop and think right okay which one
am i using now so it's very normal to have to stop and think exactly right there is a mnemonic you can use right so Raven R A V E N is like a blackbird like a crow and there's a mnemonic that uses the first letters of that word its remember that effect with an A is a verb and effect with an E is a noun so you can go through if you like trying to remember okay which which was which can't remember Raven remember affect is a verb and effect is a noun interesting you just need to remember the kind of bird right I love it all right what else do we need to know is there any caveat here or anything so for those
two it really only matters when you're writing because they sound the same when you're speaking you don't really have to think about it you're going to hear the sound the same when people are speaking, when you say them they will sound the same, but when you go to write an email, when you are writing anything, that's when you do have to take a second and think about the sentence, is it being used as a noun or a verb.
And earlier when I said effect, I just said that so that you could hear the E, but yeah, we don't have people really, people don't really say effect, right?
What are the effects?
Yeah, it's interesting.
No, not really. Sometimes when you say the, it'll sort of carry the effects.
A little bit. A little.
The effects, it's just too hard for us to say and so we just don't...effects.
Yes. Alright, where do we go from here, Aubrey?
Yeah, so this is what makes it really tricky is that these words both have a second meaning in English, much less common. So 99 percent of the time that you hear effect or see it, it will be the two we already covered, Effect as a verb, effect as a noun.
But, this word, though it's a little less common, affect, spelled with an A, spelled the same, this meaning, and it is pronounced differently, affect, this is a term used often in psychology that means the outward expression of feelings and emotions that can be observed by others.
So what is your affect?
It's like, do you look happy?
Do you look sad, that's your affect.
So for example, the patient had a flat affect with almost no facial expression during the conversation.
So, you know, just nothing there.
Nothing happening, right?
Yeah, and there are these different adjectives, especially that psychologists will use to describe someone's affect, right?
A flat affect or, you know, a joyful affect where you can see the emotions.
Interesting. Or, what did you notice about her affect, right?
We're making observations here and I think it kind of throws people off when we have a flat affect cuz we're not used to that, right?
We talked about poker face, but I think this takes poker face to a whole other level.
Right. Absolutely right.
Usually in the US, in our faces, you can see our emotions in general.
We rarely have that flat affect unless we're intentionally trying to have a poker face.
Exactly. Exactly. And then the next one, effect spelled with an E, does that also have a second meaning, Aubrey?
Yes. It has a second meaning.
And this one is a little more common. This is the lighting sound scenery used in like a play, a movie or a broadcast. It is pronounced the same as the other effect.
It just has this other meaning.
You might say the effects in that film were spectacular.
Yeah like special effects right that kind of idea?
Exactly. Or action films often have great special effects.
Yes! So you could say have great effects or have great special effects.
Means the same thing.
Sometimes I wonder how they do all those things.
Are people swinging from mountains and especially the big action movies?
You know how do they do all that stuff?
I love that now you can often look up videos where they have the green screen or it shows them with the you know the outfits on for the CGI and you can kind of get the behind -the -scenes look at how it was made and it looks kind of crazy sometimes when it doesn't have all the effects there.
Yeah. That's wild. But there are people that do their own stunts though, right?
Like they're stuntmen, they still have people actually physically putting their lives in danger to create this.
Absolutely. Did you watch Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling?
I loved it so much I thought it was great and it was a good inside look into those stunt people, right?
Yeah, 100%. That's exactly what I was thinking about, actually.
All right, we'll take a quick break and then we'll get into a role play.
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Alright Aubrey, we know our listeners love role plays, so let's do it.
Here we are at a corporate team building event.
Okay, awesome. I'll start us out.
Do you think these team building events have much of an effect?
Oh yeah I think so.
I feel like they affect how well we're able to work together.
That makes sense. Hey, did you see the new Mission Impossible movie?
The effects in those films are so good.
Nice. I love this. So the first thing I want to point out is we didn't use affect because in this conversation it just wouldn't come up.
It's not common in everyday conversations.
I don't know that I've ever used it in a conversation, right?
We'll hear psychologists use this every now and then we'll hear it on maybe a TV show on a podcast, but it's usually you're referring to the psychology of something.
No, that's right. Yeah, that doesn't make sense.
So we're not gonna force that word in here.
It just doesn't work.
So the ones that do work though, I said, do you think these team building events have much of an effect, right?
Do they have any impact would be another way of saying that.
Exactly. And that is with an E because it's the noun, right?
What is the effect of these team building events?
It's a noun in this sentence.
And then you said, or I said what I say?
Yeah. I feel like they affect how well we're able to work together and here, it's a verb.
So we write it with an A they affect something.
they change how well we're able to work together.
And I think this is a very realistic conversation you're likely to have with your co -workers.
I know a lot of corporations will invest in having training companies come in and run team building events.
And a lot of people roll their eyes, and there's always challenging, right?
Does this actually do anything?
Are we just wasting our time or is it helping us?
So I've been in this type of situation where a coworker is like, do you think this even works?
And I would be the one that's like, yes, I love these.
I think it's great.
the game person, right?
Totally right. Cause it's a fun activity.
So I'm on board. Yeah.
That's cool. That's cool.
I like it. Very authentic.
Right? Great. And then you said, that makes sense.
And then I said, Oh hey, did you see the new Mission Impossible movie?
Right? And they're responses.
The effects in those films are so good.
So you're talking about the lighting, the sound, the action, the fire, whatever it is they're doing those effects, and they are in Mission Impossible movies, I went to the newest one and it's amazing, I loved it.
Yes, or the Top Gun, the new Top Gun that came out a couple of years ago, really good too, right?
Yes. Yes, so great effects.
Okay, so we flipped into the other meaning, so that is likely to be in there too right.
The effects, the special effects.
Aubrey, what else should we tell our listeners?
Yeah, I think that's it.
It's really interesting.
We use these a lot.
Like in the average conversation, one of these effect or effect or maybe both might come up.
They're extremely common in English.
I think the good news is that you don't need to stress about which is which, because when you're speaking they sound the same.
So it isn't until you're writing that you want to take just a second to think about which to use.
If you put your writing through Grammarly or ChatGPT, that's something that they will catch for you.
So that's another there are tools that can help you make sure you're using the correct one as well.
Yeah, that I know a lot of our listeners are probably using those tools now for your writing, Grammarly, ChatGPT, other kinds of AI, but don't turn off your brain, right, because we're still sending text messages at times.
There may, there may still be times we need to know the difference, and we should want to know the difference, right?
So, like, that's another question about how do we make sure AI doesn't turn off our brain entirely?
Good point. That's true.
Not gonna want to put every text into Grammarly, right?
And that's true. These are common enough that you could end up texting or getting a text from someone.
So hopefully this demonic will help Raven, right?
Remember, effect with an A is a verb, and effect with an E is a noun.
I love it. And go over to twenty four, five.
That would have been just earlier this week.
Get sassy with this precise way to describe personality.
Yeah. Michelle and I had a great time recording that episode.
Yes, such a fun one.
If you guys missed it.
Scroll up. Don't miss it and also hit follow because you might be missing awesome episodes if you don't follow the show.
Exactly. I'll be I'll see you back here very soon.
All right. See you next time.
Take care. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears.
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