verb · academic

affect

/əˈfekt/af·FECT

Band 5-6speakingtask2

to produce a change in something or someone

Examples

The new policy will affect small businesses the most.

Smoking can negatively affect your health.

Changes in the climate affect crop yields every year.

Band 8 sentence

Although multiple factors were at play, the subsidy clearly affected farmers' willingness to invest.

Collocations

  • deeply affect
  • directly affect
  • affect decision-making

Word family

affect verbaffected adjectiveaffection noun (different meaning)

Common mistakes

effectaffect

Say it for a higher band

5change6influence7+affect

Synonyms

influence

impact

Easily confused

effect

The new law had a positive effect on employment.

Related words

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In Sublist 1

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