Hey guys,
recently I encountered something that had me wonder - i.e. the use of the words affect and effect.
Let me give an example:
"Kryptonite has a humiliating effect on Clark. "
Someone told me it should be "affect" instead of "effect".
As far as I know, affect means something like feeling.
For example:
"Whenever Clark met Lois, his affects were running high. There was love and passion, but sometimes rage and despair in equal proportions."
Until yesterday I thought that was the proper (and only possible) use of these two words. My dictionary tells me the same thing. In German, these words exist in the same manner, they're just spelled differently.
Since the person telling me that my sentence was wrong is a native speaker - unlike me - now I'm confused. I told the person why I thought I was using the word correctly, but the reply I got was - curious. Like it was possible to argue the point.
I don't mean to point any fingers, I'm honestly just curious about this. I've seen some texts using the word "affect" in places where I thought it should be "effect", like in the first sentence I mentioned. But those texts were mainly fanfic, so there is never a guarantee for proper spelling and grammar.
If I change the sentence a bit, using a verb instead of a noun, it would be:
"Clark is affected by kryptonite in a humiliating way."
I can see why it seems to make more sense using the word "affect" as a noun. But as far as I can tell, the meaning is different.
So, what is going on here?
a) Am I wrong?
b) am I right?
c) it is indeed possible to argue the point, but my dictionary is not complete and as a non-native speaker I just can't know that?
Any thoughts?
Last edited by bakasi; 02/01/22 04:51 AM.
