Don't panic. I'm not about to attempt to explain the difference between lay, lie, or laid. It will take an act of God to pound that one into my head.


Nope, today we're going to tackle the difference between two words that in the past have put my puzzler into overdrive. 


Affect and Effect


Here's the dirty little secret I recently discovered. Affect is almost always a verb and effect is almost always a noun. Example:


Music affects people's moods.
Music's effects can be stressful or soothing.


Get it? I do. Finally. Granted, as always with grammar, there are some exceptions, but for now, I'm just going to ignore those and revel in my new-found grammatical prowess.