It’s always embarrassing to native English speakers when “foreigners” speak English better than they! So for EQUALITY, I offer this sanguine research.
Consider two similar software messages from a recent QA / System Bug…
- [SYSSRS2410] Upon completion of a data purge, the .. software shall automatically refresh all effected items … that are displayed on the Information panel.
- [SYSSRS1640] Upon completion of a data purge, the … software shall automatically update the status of all affected items …that are displayed on the Information panel.
It’s a wonderful blessing to have a willing Teacher and Living Dictionary and ESL professor, Mssr. N. W. of WSU who kindly wrote:
Effected or Effect as transitive (having an object) verbs are always wrong. In most people’s usage, effect is always a noun, affect is always a verb.
Two exceptions that do create confusion:
To “effect change” is a somewhat common phrase in some areas of academia. In this sense, effect is a verb that means “to bring into being,” or maybe even “to bring into effect.”
Similarly, affect is a word where 99% of its correct usage is always as a verb. However, certain academic types (English literature in particular) are fond of sometimes using “affect” as a noun (and sometimes “affective” as an adjective), in which case it means the emotional component of a person. “His affect was generally cheery.”
These two exceptions are generally only found in snooty grad school seminars, or other über-sophisticated regions of literary/academic language. So for 99% of common usage, as in your example below, the items are “affected,” never “effected.”
Does that make sense?
More than it did before, thank you very much!!