The verb to affect means to influence or change something. When rainy weather affects your mood, it changes how you feel. When a drought affects crop growth, it impacts how well plants can grow. Scientists study how sleep affects memory, examining whether getting enough rest changes how well students remember what they learned.

People often confuse affect with effect. Here's the key difference: affect is almost always a verb (an action), while effect is usually a noun (a thing). You affect something by doing something to it, and the result is an effect. The storm affected the game (verb), and the effect was that they had to postpone it (noun).

Sometimes affect means to pretend or put on a false appearance. A student might affect an accent when reading a story aloud, or someone might affect indifference when they actually care deeply. In this sense, affecting something means acting like it's true even when it isn't.

When something is affecting, it means it touches your emotions powerfully. An affecting story about friendship might make you feel happy or sad because it resonates with your own experiences.