Nicely done, SwissBarbar!

I used to be pretty slick when it came to affect/effect (this was in my early teens, for example), but my ability to distinguish one from the other seems to have taken a thumping of late. I've never felt very confident in my grasp of rules, and it can even take me a few seconds to recognise whether a word is e.g. an adjective or a verb (or something else altogether) in a particular context—my skill in English (can you hear that? That's my trumpet, that is) is something I've long considered attributable to intuition; e.g. I'm fairly competent at identifying the worst kinds of errors in other people's usage and avoiding them (errors, not people, ho ho) in my own, but bloody useless at explaining why for example you should not say:

"LESS EMISSIONS, NOT LESS STYLE!"


(It has just occurred to me, actually, that the problem with the above is that Mr. and Mrs. Vauxhall (or whichever car it was) are using the plural form of "emission". Perhaps they reasoned that the more correct "fewer emissions, not less style" wouldn't sound as catchy, or that by using poor grammar they create a stronger affinity with the type of idiot consumer who believes that buying a new, "greener" car is the best way to save the planet?)