Your/You're & Of/Have('ve)

[Forager]

Seeing the above two mistakes irrationality annoys me so much. They're so utterly basic to get right.

I see a another thread in AIBU with the perfect 'Of/Have('ve)' example.

I consider myself fairly laidback when it comes to grammar, etc. but 'should of' really pisses me off! It's not like there is a legitimate reason for using it - it's just plain wrong.

What coping mechanisms have you put in place for your problem, OP?

Or are you just going to allow your irrational annoyance to continue, every time you log on to an internet forum?

Of you done it yet?
Yes, I of.
Well you shouldn't of!

Doesn't make sense like that, does it?! I think the mistake happens because when you say "should've" - i.e. shortening "have" - it sounds like "of".

WorraLiberty I'll probably just continue to quietly be embarrassed about getting annoyed about such a petty thing.

I need bigger things in my life to worry about clearly.

I can't help but despair at what's being taught to kids in school though.

YANBU.

It's inexcusable.

I hate it when people use "and" instead of "to", as in 'I will try and improve my written English.' It's creeping into mainstream usage which is even worse.

I think the thing is, Mumsnet is a huge site - full of diverse posters.

Some of those posters will have a different level of education, different language and learning skills etc.

And some won't particularly care what others think of their grammar, as long as they can understand what they're typing.

Sometimes my eyes silently bleed but that's very much my own problem

Should of. ARGHFUCK.

And no it's not inexcusable.

Surely it's not too much to understand that not everyone here speaks the same language fluently, or has had the same level of education?

some won't particularly care what others think of their grammar, as long as they can understand what they're typing

There is a risk that people WON'T understand what they're typing if the grammar is not correct.

Heratnumber7, not for the sake of someone typing 'could of' instead of 'could have'. Or for the sake of most of the other common grammatical errors seen on the internet.

Actually I think there's far more risk of predictive text confusing other people.

Nothing annoys me more than "brought" instead of "bought".

I brought myself a new bike. Wtf?!

WorraLiberty You're completely right. Just because I'm lucky enough to have enough of an education to know the difference doesn't mean I should think any less of the people who don't.

I still don't think I'll be able help my mental cringe and shudder.

Anniegetyourgun You make a very good point too. It's almost like they're writing it phonetically.

These irritate me too. But the one that gets me most is the misuse of woman/women, it's a feminist issue I feel.

You never see man and men muddled up but put wo in front and it seems to cause such confusion

I see it all the time, even on here where it is mainly women that post.

Perhaps predictive text is misogynistic...

Off of.
I borrowed it off of my friend. No you didn't!!!
Yes I know not everyone has the same education / intellect / desire to get it right / whatever but it drives me mad.

Fair point worra it could be predictive text being contrary all the bloody time

Is predictive text the reason for the loose/lose mix ups so frequently seen?
Don't people check what they have written before they press 'send'?

I'm a real stickler for correct grammar, punctuation and spelling in real life. I'm infamous for it at work.

However I have a daughter who is severely dyslexic. She's receiving an excellent education but she'll always be dyslexic.

I hate the thought that in 20 years or so she could be a new Mum seeking support on MN and be frightened away because posters like Forager are publically cringing at less than perfect written English.

I hate the thought that a poster today might not post for advice or be frightened away following an OP because someone like Forager shrieks paragraphs at them or is chastising them for should/of, draws/drawers, there/their or you're/your instead of actually addressing their problem.

Education is important. Standards of written English are important but MN posts who may have been written by someone in distress, has SEN, is a non native speaker or just some poor soul who didn't have the benefit of a good education.

All apart from which MN isn't representative of what is being taught in schools today. It's representative of educational standards 20-50 years ago.

To summarise: get over yourself Forager and count your blessings.

Worraliberty - I think someone who's first language is not English is likely to be confused by "could of".

I'm Irish and I do get confused by some of the grammatical errors caused by English people writing phonetically. This is presumably as it is not phonetic for me. I can't for the life of me see why someone would write brought instead of bought as Irish people do not put r's into words when speaking, unless they are actually in the spelling.

Don't get me wrong, we Irish have plenty of mispronunciations ("d" for "the" in some accents, for example) so it's not like we pronounce everything correctly. We just do it differently. That said, you don't tend to see Irish people writing "d'apple" for "the apple" even if they pronounce it that way. Maybe because there are so few of us in comparison to other English language speaking nationalities.

Just to add - I'm a lot less confused now that when I first started reading this forum. I've obviously started to learn English English. :-)

I think your/you're can be down to autocorrect/thinking too quickly and putting the wrong one down by accident.

Of/have is inexcusable, especially when they then try to insist that "it works either way". It's my pet peeve