affect

«affect» in Mova's school dictionary: to have an effect on it, to change or influence it («Rain… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (affect, affects, affected, affecting)

meaning for a pupil

1) To affect something means to have an effect on it, to change or influence it («Rain affects the match»). tree →

2) To affect someone means to make them feel strong emotions («The sad story affected her deeply»). tree →

3) To affect can mean to attack or harm a part of the body («The illness affects the lungs»). tree →

4) Formally, to affect means to pretend («affect an accent»). tree →

sense in the lessons

In science pupils investigate «how does X affect Y?» (how does light affect plant growth?); the thing you change is the variable that might affect the result. In health and the environment: pollution affects wildlife, sugar affects teeth. Phrases: «affect the result», «be affected by», «deeply affected».

examples

• How does temperature affect how fast ice melts? tree →
• Too much screen time can affect your sleep. tree →
• The flood affected hundreds of homes. tree →
• The sad film affected me a lot. tree →
• Pollution affects animals living in the river. tree →
• Does the weather affect your mood? tree →
• The illness mostly affects the skin. tree →
• Many families were affected by the storm. tree →
• The bitter weather had for some time affected his limbs. tree →

note

Big trap: «affect» is usually a verb (to change something), «effect» is usually a noun (the result). Memory trick: A for Action (affect), E for End result (effect): «Rain affects the plants; the effect is faster growth.» Regular verb: «affected».

In the corpora

• Family arguments about politics are very common, because big choices affect everybody and people's views come from their own lives.
• Red-green colour blindness affects about 1 in 12 men of European descent.
• «Affect» is usually a verb (to change something); «effect» is usually a noun (the result).
• Too much screen time can affect your mood and your sleep.
• Too much screen time can affect your mood and your sleep.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «affect» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.