to get annoyed at people who use *of* instead of *have*...

[Saddlesore]

... as in "I would of bought you a present if I knew it was your birthday".

Grrr!

Sneering at people with less educational success isn't nice.

Ooooooh, but it IS, it really IS !!!! It doesn't matter how many times you tell them, they STILL get it wrong. They just don't use what educational success they DO have to learn.

I work in a state primary school Everyone is taught the difference in usage.

I have a friend who has a "would of" tattoo...

I didn’t go to a bog standard comprehensive, I had parents with good grammar themselves who were interested and engaged in my education; I don’t have a learning disability. One of the things that these privileges have afforded me is the imagination to know that not everyone had it quite as easy as I did and that constantly sneering at other’s grammar and spelling does nothing but make it harder for other people to have their voices heard.

It's discusting to pull people up on there spelling and your defiantly being U.

Get over yourself Silently please.

I would say 'Shoulda, coulda, woulda'

reminds me of a dreadful program from 10+ years ago ... "Could'ja, Would'ja" or somesuch similar.

Really dreadful. Although, to be fair, compared to some of todays reality TV, it was Hamlet.

OP could you be more Pacific ?

I can't get worked up over it. I did giggle when someone asked my DS if he was being have (pronounced hay-ve)
They meant "are you behaving?"

(This was someone I knew well so I laughed and corrected them)

This is about he 500th thread on this topic in the last 3 months. Who cares.

" One of the things that these privileges have afforded me is the imagination to know that not everyone had it quite as easy as I did and that constantly sneering at other’s grammar and spelling does nothing but make it harder for other people to have their voices heard."

Did they teach you about false binaries though? Because there is a whole spectrum of behaviour in between not giving a shit about other people's grammar, and "constantly sneering" at them in order to silence them. I can read "could of" and be thinking "ouch" but that certainly doesn't mean I would mention it to someone or think less of what they were saying in the normal course of events.

In a work situation, if something were being sent out using "of" instead of "have" then I would feel obliged to correct it. I wouldn't sneer at someone for it - I would just carefully explain why it's incorrect and how the confusion arises.

On a completely unrelated note (inspired by FattyNinjaOwl) do any posters recall reading a word in a book, but never having heard it, completely bollixed up the pronunciation in conversation ?

The first I recall was "paradigm". I said it "para-did-jum" to a blank look from my teacher. Turned my show-off moment into a cringing humiliation, as I was corrected.

I also remember being very confused reading a book where someone was sent to "gaol". First off, I thought I had a different book to everyone else, as they kept on saying "jail". Secondly, I wondered how much of a punishment playing football was.

God, I was a fucking idiot .

I'm not sneering: my (university-educated) BIL is one of the worst offenders of using "of" instead of "have". I think it's more to do with being clueless than uneducated. Being clueless, of course, means that it doesn't matter to him (or other offenders) as much as to me, a self-declared pedant. But it could create confusion for his children when they start to learn foreign languages at school, as I think it's more difficult to construct foreign sentences if you can't deconstruct your own mother tongue correctly.
I agree, though, that it would be U to point it out, so I'll just remain silently sat (arghh! another bugbear) in the corner every time he, or anyone else, uses it.

LurkingHusband Yes! When I was quite small, I mispronounced the word 'tread' as 'treed' while reading to the teacher. The teacher wasn't paying attention and just nodded so I carried on, and spent quite some time believing 'treed' was a real word

YANBU. My DM and DSis do it all the time and it winds me up too!

But how often do your BIL's children read something he has written, OP? It's really only an issue in written English.

I pronounced banal as bay-nal when trying to show off at age 17.

It's definitely a regional thing too, people in my northern town actually pronounce have as 'of'.

LurkingHusband, I pronounced 'epitome' as eppi-tomb in my English class when reading aloud.

I'm not adverse to it

it is meaningless to use 'of' - it makes no sense
''ve' is fine as it is aan abbreviation of 'have'
even if phonetically the same it is wrong
same as using 'your' for you're'
does nobody correct the error in schools? - and it is absolutely nothing to do with the level of education - people of my age who left school at 14 and worked in factories or on farms would never use of in place of have or 've'
it is slovenly and a sad example of misuse of the English language.

Ronnie - it may be regional, but it's widespread, my mate from Kent says "could of"