I know that every generation complains about the previous generation, and with that said I am, of course, going to complain.

I still remember, to this day, having the fact that "a lot" is two words drilled into me. It isn't "alot" or, as you'll see more and more often today, "allot" (which is what spell checkers recommend when you type "alot" - try it yourself). It's "a lot". Two words.

I don't think spelling, grammar or much of the English language are actually being taught, in fact. I suspect that it's a matter of scribbling down a phonetic representation of a word or phrase you've heard. Surely that's good enough, right? Because everyone knows that when you write:

For all intensive purposes

...you actually mean...

For all intents and purposes

Interestingly, these misheard phrases are actually making it into the (more or less) accepted English language. How many people know that it's actually couldn't care less?

Happily though, there's organizations like the Apostrophe Protection Society, who are here to help us. In fact, they're doing a lot of good. Do yourself a favour and bookmark their page. Send it to a friend. You'll be doing your part to prevent the language from degrading into inscrutability.

P.S. It's always dangerous to write a piece about grammar. I recognize this, so feel free to start picking. Comments aren't enabled on this site, so you'll have to email me. And I'll ignore you.