Here are the most annoying mistakes to come across in a post. I love reading articles on the net, but sometimes I read things that just grate my cheese. Here are five of the all-time biggest peeves.

1. “Loose” v. “Lose”

You’ll often see this one written in the context of losing an argument or position (e.g. ‘you looser’ or ‘I think he is loosing the plot LOL’). Loose, with a soft ’s’, means ‘not tight’ while ‘lose’, with a hard s, means ‘to be defeated’. You lose an argument, but you loosen a knot. Calling someone a ‘looser’ instantly marks the author as a twit. Now, the other person may well really be a loser, so make sure you pick the right word so as to get the insult across properly.

2. “For all intensive purposes” v. “For all intents and purposes”

I think it’s easy to see how people can mistake ‘intents and purposes’ for ‘intensive purposes’, but it’s grating every time it appears in print. It almost suggests that whoever wrote the passage rarely actually reads anything (that is to say, they’ve heard the expression, but have never seen it in print).

3. “Could care less” v. “Couldn’t care less”

This one really begs correction every time it’s seen. In fact, I’d argue it actually drops to its knees, crying and bloody, screaming for correction. This term, correctly used, means that the subject or person in the sentence cares so little that it would be physically impossible to care any less. That is, “I am trying to care less at this moment, but I am finding myself unable to do so. That’s how little I care”. The other version is hip but puzzling: saying “I could care less about your stupid idea” means “Although your idea is absurd in the extreme, and only a fool would pay attention, I would like to hear more.”

4. “Case and Point” v. “Case in point”

Here, you’re offering an example to support an argument you’re trying to make. For instance, you might say, “I think popular music has real power to unit races. Case in point: Justin Timberlake and Snoop Dogg”. Supporting your argument in this way makes everyone feel better, and you look like a real big shot. But saying “case and point” doesn’t make sense, because you’re only offering the case, not the point. You’re going to have to make the point after you’ve made the case. See Point (2) above.

5. “Effect” v. “Affect”

An effect is a cause, but to affect is to cause. So, you’d say that ‘the music had a calming effect‘ and also that ‘the music can affect the mood’. This one is curious, because there are situations in which you can use either and the sentence will make perfect sense. For example, you could say either ‘the new policy affected the product recall’ (which is to say that a regulation changed the way a product was being recalled) or you could say ‘the new policy effected the product recall’ which suggests that the product was recalled as a result of the policy.