affect/effect change

[joham]

If you were Pierre Laporte, would you have wanted to become a politician to affect change?

I read this sentence in COMPLETE CANADIAN CURRICULUM (grade 6). I'd like to know if we can also use 'effect change' without changing the meaning of the sentence.

 

[Route21]

The 2 words have 2 different meanings:

See:
affect - definition of affect by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

Usage Note: "Affect" and "effect" have no senses in common.

As a verb "affect" is most commonly used in the sense of "to influence" (how smoking affects health).

"Effect" means "to bring about or execute": layoffs designed to effect savings.

Thus the sentence "These measures may affect savings" could imply that the measures may reduce savings that have already been realized, whereas "These measures may effect saving" simplies that the measures will cause new savings to come about.

Regards
R21

 

[konungursvia]

Or, since we've used the word 'politician', affect can also mean to mimic or fake, to play act at the suits and trappings of change.