Would of; could of; should of - why? Just WHY? Makes my teeth itch, AIBU?

[LadyStoic]

I'm convinced I never saw any of the abominations above on MN a decade ago, even a fecking year ago. Now popping up like a persistent bloody virus

Just me or should I get my coat?

Oh, and another thing, if folks must use it, why the fuck do they I swear we are being infiltrated spell 'hon' as 'hun'?

The worst thing for me is when posters say "excepted" when they mean "accepted". The two words have totally opposite meaning ......Were they accepted or excepted??

i can't beest doing with all the grammar pedants on this f'rum. this is did suppose to beest a chat cubiculo. t's not an english exam, 'r a job application.
t's not an official lett'r, 'r gov'rnment website.
mine own youngest issue is v'ry bright, howev'r that gent hast struggl'd with spelling. that gent is not thick. .
i findeth t amusing yond some posteth'rs who is't art up,in arms about "could of" has't grammatical 'rr'rs in their posts but i wouldst nev'r baffle those folk by pointing out their mistakes.

Amazing how language evolves, isn't it?
Thanks, Shakesperean translator.

I do always love it so much though when the pearl-clutchers and hell-in-a-handcarters make far more SPaG errors than anyone who uses the odd "could of" would.

Gotta love Muphry.

PS. Is it really a whole week since we last had a thread about this? Seems like only yesterday.

So, OP. Given the toys have been well and truly chucked, how exactly did you imagine this thread would go?

The posters on MN who may know how to use compound verbs, latinate interjections and conjunctions- but who might let a "could of" slip through- how do they feel upon reading your OP?

Get it now?

Thought not.

Word to the wise though, as others have said, best to be sure of one's own SPaG before starting a thread to criticise others.

Do pack in the passive aggression, Vintage. You do realise that you come over as infinitely more smug than OP does?

I think the standards of literacy in the UK have fallen significantly in my lifetime.

I work in a school and I am sometimes horrified by the standard of written English of some of the teachers, let alone the children! Common errors include the misuse of apostrophes and commas and producing sentences that simply don't make sense!

Passed vs past

There isn't very good evidence to suggest standards of literacy have fallen.

Even if you only look back to the 60s/70s, the proportion of children who weren't exposed to mainstream schooling was much higher - and many of them were not encouraged to develop any literacy at all.

There are also quite a lot of people who never developed particularly good literacy skills, but didn't really need them. I know people who work in adult remedial education, who've seen a pretty strong pattern of older people coming in needing to learn quite basic literacy skills over the last decade or two. There's been a shift from expecting people not to need to keep records in writing, to expecting a lot of written record-keeping, which means they need those skills.

I think higher expectations, not lower standards, are what we're seeing.

I have always assumed (and it is an assumption to be fair) that it was just that we are exposed to so much more of "normal" people's writing now. If you think about even 20 years ago you just never saw much writing from anybody except people who wrote for a living.

Oh dear. My post last night - now reading it without the veil of Tramadol and lingering sedation - really is a tad wanky isn't it?

I do however stand by the comments vis DC; I don't think it's fine and dandy to say someone else's kids must be bullies just because you disagree with something their parent has written...

Quietly I guess that's a valid point but from my POV I thought it was pretty self-evident that my OP wasn't remotely regarding anyone with any kind of impediment (de facto, that would be pretty stupid if it were the case); rather the - much, much larger - population generally. Again, apologies if anyone remotely thought otherwise and were offended by that.

Fascinated at the posts vis Medieval language and vis the evolution of language.

If you think about even 20 years ago you just never saw much writing from anybody except people who wrote for a living.

I think this is an excellent point.

There's been a shift from expecting people not to need to keep records in writing, to expecting a lot of written record-keeping, which means they need those skills.

This is exactly what happened with my son who has dyslexia and other learning difficulties; he is in a job that did not require much writing at all, but that began to change with more emphasis on keeping records of everything. As he progressed in his job, he enrolled in an adult literacy program which has been a considerable help.

Lady

As you have just posted honestly I will too and I absolutely apologise for inferring your children were bullied because of your attitude. I was remembering the bullying my son received because of his dyslexia and projecting and I was absolutley wrong to do so.

I hope you are feeling better too.

navy you have a point and I don't want to be that poster so apologise if I was professionally offended.

I too am fascinated by the Medieval English posts too.

I think it's the way MN is changing TBH.
Not being able to say anything without someone being offended.

It's not a new thing on MN for people to challenge mean-spirited posts on threads.

YANBU, OP.

I don't care if people think it's wank.

I like being naturally good at SPAG. No-one beats anyone else up for being good at sport and ripping the piss out of those who aren't.

One usage that annoys me massively on MN is "inferring" used incorrectly for implying.

I think it is also important to understand that it is relative. There are always going to be people who are better at some aspects of written and spoken English than others. They may have a higher baseline of acceptable literacy that puts many of us, even skilled writers, in the "needs improvement" category.

For example, several of the posts on this thread by people who are lamenting the mistakes of others are using constructions that a careful editor would change.

And this:
paintingthegreyarea.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/literacy-privilege/

Thank god Navy thought you were punching me

'So', at the beginning of a post. I was taught never to start a sentence with so.

My husband does it. Drives me mad