To get annoyed when mnetters put "of" instead of "have"

[Doobies]

I see it more and more often in aibu.

"to of eaten this"

"to of gone out today"

To give a couple of examples.

It grates on me too but agree that we can't blame individuals for the education they did or didn't receive.

Text speak - particularly when used by grown adults who should know better - really annoys me. I cannot abide messages from friends and family in this format. It takes as long to write "l8er" as it does to write "later".

Oh, and for Katisha

"No wonder mn is criticised for being so middle classed."

How is it middle class?

Isn´t it something that you learn in primary school?

Using 'of' instead of 'have' is nonsensical, not just incorrect. It can alter the entire meaning of a sentence. And to many people reading said sentence, it will necessitate stopping, re-reading, identifying the error, mentally replacing with the correct form before reading through again and moving on.

Ensuring that you are clear, correct and easily understood is the basic courtesy of any form of communication.

No-one is suggesting anyone should have perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation. No-one is able to do this all of the time, even with an amazing education and a gift for languages. But I would venture to suggest that should an erros be pointed out politely, those making that error should acknowledge and endeavour to use the correct form in the future.

Because language is important, and standards are important. I'd not seen this as a homophonic error prior to approximately six months ago and yet now it is ubiquitous. That's all the proof you need that allowing errors to go unchecked makes a difference.

It is an extremely basic premise - akin to there/their/they're, or it, its, it's.

YANBU

The rain in Spain lies gently on the plane.

well from all that I have read on here, a lot of people are actually quite offended when their english/grammar/spelling mistakes are pointed out.

Do you really want these people to stop using mumsnet? A kind of class/education cleansing as opposed to ethnic cleansing?

You wouldn't do it to someone face to face in RL so why is it ok to do on here?

Do you honestly want it to be a yummy mummy's club because I don't!

No,sorry, the rain in Spain lies mainly on the plain.

I think she's got it.

It does annoy me a little but I can get past it.

I have a friend who is a PhD level scientist and uses 'of' instead of 'have'. I can't quite bring myself to point it out as she is one of the most highly intelligent people I know.

Good grief tis only the internet how sad that people hate it loathe it etc

Must be a slow day on MN

YANBU. You're annoyed when you see it written and you said so. It annoys the hell out of me as well.

Well I can see Christmas is over, the shit head thread has appeared.
good grief I would love to only have this to worry about.

Who said we want it to be a yummy mummy's club?! By no stretch of imagination could I be construed to be one of those!

I agree people will get offended if their mistakes are pointed out, which is why I would never start a thread to pick one person's mistakes out. Nor would I ever do it face-to-face (unless I was a teacher, of course). But the comments here are about bad grammar in general and not related to one person.

I don't want anyone to stop using Mumsnet. But if a thread like this helps to explain why certain things are incorrect, then what's the problem?

Amijee - the OP asked if she was being unreasonable to be annoyed by this particular error - she didn't ask if it would be reasonable of her to criticise or correct people, or shove the correct usage down their throats - there's a big difference.

And yes, this particular error really grates on me too - though I do understand how it has come about.

YANBU, it's not an attack on a specific poster it's a statement that a particular common error annoys you (drives me up the wall too, not just on Mumsnet). Pointing out on the original thread would be rude.

I don't blame the education system, I "blame" (sort-of) the Internet, which has caused a lot of people to go online to chat, who might barely in previous decades have picked up a pen from one month to the next. Hence people with less than great writing skills are much more visible than they were in, say, the 1970s. I don't actually think this is a bad thing at all.
In some cases of course it's just a single blind spot for an otherwise competent writer, in which case why not point it out?

I agree completely, SantaClausImWorthIt.

Some people have said they feel it is right to point out these mistakes.

And if a newbie came on and saw this thread and wasn't well educated, how do you think s/he would feel?

Well, I was a newbie once and, had I seen this thread, I would have thought that the OP wasn't being unreasonable at all.

Talking on mostinternet forums is more like having a conversation imo ,not a piece of formal written work

SantaClausImWorthIt there is a pendants corner, just the place where you can sit an slag of others.
so why isn't this thread there?

Well, given that its an error of usage that's being pointed out, rather than the person who made the error being villified, I'd not expect them to feel anything. I might, though, hope that they would notice the error that was being pointed out!!!

Because the OP didn't know about Pedants' Corner, nightmare.

One smart fellow he felt smart.
Two smart fellows they felt smart.
And so on....

It's a Christmas tongue twister.

"Talking on mostinternet forums is more like having a conversation imo ,not a piece of formal written work"

Yes, there is that.

But do people say "should of"?

hmm
so she can't read the topic list, yet starts a thread slating other people.. yeah ok

I think it depends where you come from..I have an accent and probably use a lot of regional words and sayings that some don't on here.