affect vs effect?

Question

I have read through quite a few yahoo answers on this, but I am still confused.

A coworker and I are having a debate on affects vs. effects.

I wrote:

"The electronics have averaging in hardware to reduce the affects of vibration."

He claims this is not correct because reduce is a verb and therefore effects should be used.

Which word is correct, affects or effects?

Answer 1

To affect is to have influence on something. His hate affects my happiness. Effect is a past tense word following a cause. He swung the bat and the effect was........a home run. Affect means an influence on something......effect means something that happens after an event, hitting the ball, or eating too much. The effect of eating too much is to get fat. The word effect is correct in the statement because vibration is the cause of something and effect describes the cause of a previous action. When ever there is a controversy about word definitions and usage consulting a dictionary is best.Hope this helps.

Answer 2

When one factor has an "effect" on something else, "AFFECT" is the verb and "EFFECT" is the noun form:
(1) She does not "AFFECT" me.
[meaning: She does not "influence" me. VERB]
(2) She has no "EFFECT" on me.
[meaning: She does not have any "influence" on me. NOUN]

"The electronics have averaging in hardware to reduce the [effects] of vibration."

The right word should be "EFFECTS" since this is a NOUN.
(it has the article "the" in front of it).

* If you said
'The vibrations "AFFECT" the electronics.'
"AFFECT" would be correct since this is a VERB.

Note:
The only time "effect" is used as a verb is when it is used to
mean "enact" -- such as "the board effected a new policy."
This is a more technical usage and not very common.

Most people normally use "affect/effect" to mean having an "influence" on someone or something.

Answer 3

Affect means "to influence"

When used as a verb, Effect means "to accomplish"
When used as a noun, Effect means "the result of an action"

Sorry, but technically, effects is correct.....

Answer 4

Affects = verb
Effects = noun

Answer: Effects

Answer 5

Effects "Effect" in the noun, "affect" is the verb. Here's a nice mnemonic to help figure out which one to use: "The Arrow Affect the aardvark. The Effect was Eye popping."

Answer 6

your friend is correct.

However your quoted "sentence" is gobbeldygook

"The electronics have averaging in hardware to reduce the affects of vibration."

this sentence has no meaning and might be written by a robot

Answer 7

I've allows had it explained as affects are things that change human behaviors which would lead me to believe effect should be used in the sample.

Answer 8

to affect- is the verb
effect is the noun.

Your friend is right, my friend.
You could say the vibration is adversely affecting the hardware.
But the effects of the vibration to be reduced, is in its noun form.

Hope this helps.

Answer 9

sm bn is right. Your sentence is gibberish. Affect or effect, really doesn't matter. I've heard more coherent mutterings from aphasia patients.

Answer 10

First of all, effects.
Secondly, the sentence is not gobbledygook if you interpret "averaging" as geek-speak for "averaging algorithms". (It's also syntactially correct, as "averaging" is used as a gerund.) Given the context of the sentence, geek-speak is reasonable.