Just to bring more (confusion) to the discussion, "effect" can actually be a verb as well... See following examples, with the verbs used in the past tense: Affected" means "impacted, created an effect on, changed in a certain way." Example: The BP oil spill adversely affected marine wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas. Effected means "executed, brought about, produced something." Example: After the BP oil spill, the government effected (brought about, executed) sweeping environmental regulation.

"Affect" is a verb. To "affect" is to have an impact on something. "Effect" is a noun, the result of being 'affected' by something. So you can say: "The rain will affect the players during the football match". Or "the rain will have an effect on the players during the football match". Hope that helps. It's a good question, even some native speakers make mistakes with this.

the important thing to remember always is EFFECT is about outcome, result; as a noun it refers to the RESULT, as a verb it refers to bringing about a RESULT. Affect is usually about feelings or mind or emotions, sometimes about pretending ...

Beware, native speakers frequently get these wrong, even the more common uses. The standard answers, as from london, are the more common uses. The other uses are not uncommon, though & you should be aware of them.

here are several examples, and you can tell what the difference is more easily "Cause and effect" is frequently used to describe scientific signs I suggest you not be affected by his disturbance Most pop music singers were deeply affected by beatles band You cannot take drugs without scarce side effect