Affect or Effect?

Affect or Effect?

Affect (Influence) (V)

မွတ္ခ်က္- Encarta မွာေတာ့ affect ကို verb သာမက noun လို႔လဲ ဆိုလိုထားပါတယ္။
to have an influence on someone or something, or to cause them to change:
e.g. Both buildings were badly affected by the fire.

Effect (Result) (N)

the result of a particular influence:
e.g. The radiation leak has had a disastrous effect on/upon the environment.

Effect (Achieve) (V)

to achieve something and cause it to happen:
e.g. As a political party they are trying to effect a change in the way that we think about our environment.

(Source and reference: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary 2003)

In general use, affect is only used as a verb, whereas effect is commonly used as a noun and only in formal contexts as a verb. What causes confusion is that they have very similar pronunciations and closely related meanings. If one thing affects [acts upon] another, it has an effect on it [causes it to change]. Notice also that you can affect [cause a change in] people as well as things, but you can only effect [bring about] things such as changes: The election has affected our entire society, for it has effected major changes in the government.The bad weather has a bad effect [not affect] on him.

(Source and reference: Microsoft® Encarta)

For summing up,
A: How do you think the new program will affect things?
B: I think it will affect things in a good way. I think its effect will be a positive one.