GMAT Verbal Tip: Accept the Effect

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AFFECT/EFFECT

These words give writers trouble since the two can be both a noun and a verb, although affect is typically verb and effect, noun. Normally, you will use affect to denote influence. For example:

If I play music will it affect your studying?

Affect used as a noun means “emotion.”

On the other hand, effect, which is more commonly used as a noun, relates to the consequence or result.

The effects of the drug have long since worn off.

As a verb, it means to cause or to accomplish:

The tornado effected a change in our plan.

ACCEPT/EXCEPT

Another couple of closely related words which mean different things are accept and except. Accept will refer to receiving or approval of something.

I accept your apology.

Except refers to an exclusion, as in, not including.

I took all those classes except math.

Because they sound so similar, these words often become interchanged when we write but meaning two different things, they can really botch a sentence’s meaning!