So I lose my money if I am too loose with it at a bar???

Oh goody! Finally! Thank you!
Another thing that annoys me utterly is seeing someone write "then" when they clearly mean "than". People also don't seem to remember distinctions between "there", "their", and "they're", not to mention the fact that they forget that apostrophes or question marks exist.
That's my rant

My mother learned spelling and grammar from a college writing teacher. If the teacher caught a mistake that a student and their partner missed, both automatically failed the assignment. They were allowed to do another assignment to make it up though.

Then my mother taught me. She would have me write a paper Then she would correct one mistake at a time, while having me redo the paper each time. It took hours and hours. As tough as it was, it worked and I'm happy for it. Now I see errors all the time; I can't look at my local newspaper without thinking that they really need a proofreader.

Though everybody makes mistakes from time to time.

Protip: If you can't read what you wrote, nobody else can.

It's a very common typo in computer game text, as well.

When something is alternate, it tends to switch between two states, rather than when it is alternative, which means what most people intend alternate to mean.
In other words, saying someone lives an alternate lifestyle implies they have a lifestyle every other day.
In recent years, however, this mistake has become so common that even the Oxford English Dictionary has started to merge the two meanings, giving each meaning as "alternate" to the other



Unfortunately, this sort of practice has completely vanished from at least the Australian Queensland education system. I'm rather glad, then, that I have English as a second language, and understand it thoroughly only because I learnt German (so violations of the subjunctive still hurt me deeply ) the hard way, at school.

Excuse my (second) rant

I wrote a sarcastic reply in like manner...even threw in leetspeak... promptly lost 50 IQ points and forgot what was supposed to be funny about it.

You sound like you need to losen up.

'Turrent' is not now, nor was it ever, an actual word. Please drop it from your vocabulary.

Thanks!

I think that is the point! It must be this threat! I think it is addicting people.

Aaargh!
I feel like writing a third rant now...
"Affect" and "effect" are two different words. "Affect" as a noun is rather archaic by now; its closest modern definition is the corresponding noun to "affected behaviour", or rather, "affectation" in terms of behaviour. In baroque music (as the German "Affekt") it referred to the general programmatic "point" to a piece, loosely defined.
"Affect" as the verb is as most people use it - simply, to influence, or change slightly.

"Effect" is what people usually mean used as a noun. The noun means "a result", as in "cause and effect". It is a consequence brought about by an action or event.
As a verb, it means "to bring about".
Therefore, one may have an affect to effect a change in a system, so that the effect of change was brought about because the system was affected. There!
I think I'm becoming more arrogant as the discussion grows...

hokd an fahnicz werced fer mee!

Well, since you weren't pointing fingers at anyone specific, nobody's likely to jump to the defense of their own idiocy.

At least, I'd certainly hope not...