Remember this sentence when you have to decide between “affect” and “effect”: The woman was affected by the effect of the film.
“Effect,” the noun, is pronounced differently than its verbal counterpart, "affect," pronounced “uh-fect." “E-fect” is the noun pronunciation.
Grammar Girl recommends an easy mnemonic using an aardvark to keep the two words straight: “The arrow affected the aardvark. The effect was eye-popping.” In this tip, the use of words that begin with “a” or “e” remind you of the usage of each word.
Remember that “a” comes before “e” in the alphabet. Something must “affect” you before it can have an “effect.” Verb first; noun second. “My hunger affected me; the effect was that I ate a bag of cookies.”
There are rare instances when "affect" and "effect" are reversed. “Affect,” the verb, can be used as a noun in psychology to refer to someone's feeling or emotion, rather than a thought or action. Psychologists use “affect” to describe the appearance of someone's mood to avoid presuming to know another person's exact feelings.
“Effect” can also be used occasionally as a verb; for instance, if you were saying, “He wanted to effect change.” In this context, “effect” means to bring something about.