To judge people who use could of/should of/would of?

[sneezingwakesthebaby]

Am I being unreasonable?

I suppose I am a bit because someone could have any form of difficulty which affects their grammar.

But generally, I still form an opinion about someone and what type of person they are just based on their use of "of" instead of "have". I don't decide to do this. It just automatically happens when I read it.

Hmmm.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

fell, I don't think it is like the 'otter' example. I get what you're saying and I expect it's like that for some people. Like the way some people think 'alzheimers' is 'old-timer's' disease and once you tell them, they know.

But I think for some people, they just hear the two words sounding alike and end up writing the wrong one by mistake before their brain catches up. Ideally, you'd teach someone to proof-read properly and they would catch those mistakes, but everyone makes small errors sometimes, whether because their muscle memory catches them out, or because they type the wrong thing because they're thinking about the sound not the spelling.

[crashdoll]

YABVU to judge but YANBU to feel irritated.

[FellatioNels0n]

Yes LRD I think that is exactly what they are doing. But it is an innocent mistake nonetheless (much like the otter/rabbit thing) and I would hope that most people, once they'd had it pointed out to them would go 'Doh!' and make a concerted effort to stop doing it. So the principle is the same.

They've just mis-heard it many, many times, and so have the people around them, and they are all saying 'should of' too, which just compounds the problem - very few of us stop and analyse our everyday language - we just assume it makes sense. I understand completely how it happens. But many people seem to cling to the slightly bizarre idea that it's some kind of dialogue thing, and 'it's correct where I live because everyone I know does it and they understand me, so why should I stop?' Or getting all uppity and defensive when they are corrected.

I find that strange. I would feel like a plank if I thought I'd been doing that my whole life and no-one told me. I'd be grateful, not offended.

[Theicingontop]

Life is way too short.

[usualsuspect]

Innit, Theicingontop.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Oh, I see.

I think, for me, dialect is the spoken form. If in your accent 'could've' and 'could of' are homophones, eventually it will become standard grammar. I think that's obvious.

I'm not sure I would justify writing 'could of' as dialect, it seems slightly different to me.

I think the only reason I'd be offended would be if someone suggested I should feel 'like a plank' to get it wrong. It's not hard to tell someone something new but not make them feel small doing it.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Gah. 'dialect is to do with the spoken form'.

As you see, I can't type.

[Porkster]

I judge. I know it's wrong, but I do.

'Would of' etc drives me nuts.

[babiesinslingsgetcoveredinfood]

And while we're at it, it's drawER not draw. Z(another thread has been annoying me today.