Which sentence uses affect as a verb correctly?

Which sentence uses affect as a verb correctly?

• A. The policy will effect the economy.
• B. The policy will affect the economy.
• C. The policy will have an affect on the economy.
• D. The economy will affect the policy.

Answer: (B)

Affect is the verb you use when something influences or changes something else. When you want to say that a policy influences the economy, you should use affect in its verb form: the policy will affect the economy. This keeps the agent (the policy) doing the influencing and the thing being influenced (the economy) as the object. The other options run into common usage problems. Using affect as a noun here doesn’t fit because the standard noun form is effect, as in “will have an effect on the economy.” And while the sentence with the economy as the subject also uses a correct verb, it flips who is influencing whom—“The economy will affect the policy” means the economy influences the policy, not the policy influencing the economy.

Affect is the verb you use when something influences or changes something else. When you want to say that a policy influences the economy, you should use affect in its verb form: the policy will affect the economy. This keeps the agent (the policy) doing the influencing and the thing being influenced (the economy) as the object.

The other options run into common usage problems. Using affect as a noun here doesn’t fit because the standard noun form is effect, as in “will have an effect on the economy.” And while the sentence with the economy as the subject also uses a correct verb, it flips who is influencing whom—“The economy will affect the policy” means the economy influences the policy, not the policy influencing the economy.