If you took more advanced chemistry, you might have learned that bases are substances that can donate electron pairs, and that acids are substances that can accept them.
If you took high school chemistry, then you undoubtedly recall the bizarre drawings of the "orbitals" that describe where in an atom or a molecule an electron is likely to be found.
The induced effect of alkyl is supposed to penetrate organic chemistry, which pushing electron of alkyl is used to explain in most text books and reference books.