use of affect and effect as nouns

[tony h]

I am suffering from an absence of brain cells today. I am struggling to find a clear, for a 10 year old, description of the usage and difference between the nouns affect and effect. Any help will be appreciated and a tot of Armeniac will be drunk in your honour.

[Bobinwales]

Affect is a verb, A verb is an Action.
.
When something affects something else, it has an effect.
The affect happens first and the effect second, just as Affect comes first in the alphabet and Effect second.
.
Still convoluted I grant you, but it is a start.

[trolley]

Yes, that's the easy way and probably the only distinction a 10 year old needs to remember but "affect" can be a noun. The difference between the two when they are both acting as nouns would be a little hard to grasp.

[Phil White]

"Affect" as a noun is limited almost entirely to the field of psychology, and occasionally spills over into the legal realm.

In psychology, it has two almost directly opposing meanings. "Affect" is either

• The behaviour or set of behaviours that result from experiencing an emotion,
• The emotion experienced in response to a thought or experience.

For ordinary folks, outside of the realm of psychology, "affect" is a verb and "effect" is a noun. To "affect" essentially means to "have an effect".

[tony h]

Thank you all. I get these questions as a result of the grand children being encouraged to explore multi volume paper dictionaries.