to be annoyed at number of people who write

[Sallyingforth]

should of ...
could of ...
would of ...
etc.

The word is have !!!

AIBU to find these spelling/grammar police threads very tedious and patronising?

Should of, would of, could of. All of these make me seethe.

Ohh I always do it.
I can't help it. I'm from a town called Nuneaton, if you heard half the inhabitants talk you would understand.

Would you like to flog me now or later?

But, but, but why do people think that it´s "should of"?

So "should´ve" can sound like "should of"-I get that.

But then why do people write it?

Didn´t they read any books at school & realise that "should/would/could of" just isn´t there?

Yes diddl, I just don't read. At all.

It's a bit like picking your nose or biting your fingernails. A nasty habit to get out of.

Obviously, no, they didn't realize. Possibly because the aural memory is quite strong and overlays what they know is right, who knows?

I doubt there are enormous numbers of people thinking 'mwah ha ha, let us go forth and write 'of' instead of 'have', just to annoy the pedants'. Or teachers thinking 'hmm, now we are north of the Trent, I shall remove all the books from the classroom and we shall instead poke the ground with sticks while grunting'.

I excelled in poking the ground with sticks and grunting! Twas me best subject.

I want you to know I checked three times to get the right 'right' and 'write' in that post, too. That was a right waste of my time.

I was very good at playing with sand. I actually played with sand a lot as a child learning to read. It was very sad and deprived at my school. There were limited numbers of paint colours and everything.

I'm curious: do the people who think this is lazy also insist on saying 'flutter-by' instead of 'butterfly'? How far do you take it all?

It's none have your business.

One that confuses me is bring and take. I was once given some paperwork and was told to "bring this to so and so's office". I was rooted to the spot, thinking what did she just say, surely she meant , "take this to ......" . I know this originated in America. Is this acceptable to say, because whenever I hear it, I always think it should be take, and not bring in these types of situations? Or am I just showing my age?

Maybe there isn´t that much focus on learning how to "construct" the English language any more?

Or it´s when you study another language that it really sinks in that it´s "have" plus the past participle to form the perfect?

Could be, diddl, could be. Or, it could be some people are more tripped up by their aural memories than others.

I do think learning a second language helped me with English grammar. It's very nice I got that chance. It is also a bit of a leap, from 'do they never open books' to 'maybe they need second language', IMO.

I would imagine French is quite confusing, though. All that time learning which verbs take avoir and which take etre (sorry, can't do the accent thingy).

I get pissed off when people miss out important words out of sentences like "the".

Not being a pedant or anything - just curious - but WHY does diddl's apostrophe always look like that? Mine and everyone else's is straight - diddl's is slanty like an acute accent.

Not that it's been bothering me at all

much

Oh, it is, isn't it? How odd.

It annoys me more when people say "if I'd have done this and that" when they are trying and failing to use the third conditional. Even the BBC do it and various well known films I'd is a contraction so they are saying "if I had have done this and that."

German keyboard!

It´s all I can find, sorry!

But I think that you are right & that it is an accent because of the spacing.

Perhaps there is an apostrophe & I just haven´t found it yet!

herbyvore mine looks like that. It's a Spanish computer. I can't eom strata as I'm on the iPad but I suspect a similar keyboard issue!

Thank you Diddl!

You just carry on, now I know what it is I think I can cope with it.

I wouldn't want you to have to go pressing ctrl F1 ? or something every time you wanted to do an apostrophe.

If it's German, it's probably right.

umlauf - the one that annoys me is similar. I don't like 'if I was'. I have my mother's voice screeching 'if I were' in my head. I suspect that's on its way out as a construction, though.

YANBU

Does it matter that much? Why would you feel annoyed about it?

YES !! It is wrong. You need the verb there.

My kids say it too and it drives me mad.

And an accent because it isn´t straight

BUT-look what I've found!

The accent is much more conveniently placed though-& I don't need to shift!!

I'm really embarrassed that I've only just noticed it tbh!