I have no idea, I'm still very confused. Maybe I was affected by my psychology degree

spookily - i was trying to explain inquire and enquire to myself a few days ago. ie i wanted to write 'inquiring minds want to know' - but was trying to make sure i had the right one? seems to be interchangable to me when i tried to look it up on dictionary.com

When I worked in a library we had an "Inquiry Desk' and were told this was because inquiries are deeper than enquiries.

The linked article put it simply and correctly:

"When you affect a situation, you have an effect on it."

"affect" is the verb that causes something to happen
"effect" is the noun that is the result of that something

Yeah that's what I meant! I was top of the English class back in the day but try to get me to figure out what verbs and nouns are and I'm lost.

The correct way to say what you said would be the thing doing something to "something else", is affecting it.

Affect = have an effect on; make a difference to.

Effect = a change that is a result or consequence of an action or other cause. Used to refer to the state of being or becoming operative.

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screw it all and use "result" and "influence" instead.