AIBU to die inside a little bit every time I see 'could of'?

[MeetMeInMontauk]

Yep, it's another sanctimonious grammar-Nazi thread, so I'm going to get in early and tell all the bleeding heart virtue signallers who usually jump on these threads to do one, straight out of the gate. I'm interested in the experiences of others regarding what appears to be some sort of epidemic (at least on Facebook) or a near-ubiquitous grammatical blind spot in modern written English. For context, I live in an upcoming area of the SE but with an inescapably working class heritage and large council estate community, although this trend is by no means limited to the local FB community pages and is something that I see from even university-educated friends. How has 'could of' snuck in almost unremarked? Obviously as a corruption of the enunciation of the contraction 'could've' when spoken, but even then it makes no sense, if given even the slightest thought. Noone is saying, for example, 'Did you of one of my biscuits?', but the application of 'could of' seems almost universal in some circles. I accept that its contextual use means that nearly everyone involved understands the meaning and intent, but it's an inaccuracy that appears to be gaining continued traction. Does it make anyone else cringe, or do I just need to get back in my cage and chill the fuck out?

His instead of he's! Very annoying.

I shudder when i hear “fed up of” or “bored of” When i grew up we said “bored with” or “fed up with”. When did “of” come into use?

We all are educated, and I am sure that there are many grammatical issues that make us wince. On the other hand, you could just get over yourself.

I can only imagine that it has come about because people are hearing “could’ve” as “could of”. I don’t see any other way they can be making the error

^^ this proves what I said earlier about lack of literacy.

If people had a basic understanding that "could've" was a contraction of "could have", they would know that the "ve" bit is not spelt "of".

But everyone should be educated. It's not like education is some kind of elite privilege for the few.

Theymademejoinin
no typo! I kid you not.That's
how they speak around here.
"Are just go and get it"..."Are be there soon".

I hate Your instead of You're and Less instead of Fewer.

“We was” instead of “we were”. SIL does this all the time (no idea why she does when DH, her twin, manages to get it right!). “We was in Sainsbury’s this afternoon” etc

Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. I first heard it/saw it written in an email from an American friend about 10-15 years ago and thought it was just slack American grammar. It now seems ubiquitous here too. I cry/scream inwardly every time...

@Scottyangel - now that's weird! And according to a poster upstream, perfectly acceptable to write as it's a non-standard regionalism........

@shabbyshibby - when you say you first heard it, do you mean actually heard or do you mean it figuratively? I'm only asking as could've and "could of" sound identical to me.

@theymademejoin shabbyshibby said she first saw it in an email, in written form there is a difference between 'could've' and 'could of'. In spoken form obviously there isn't a difference.

language evolves .
if it didn’t we would all be speaking middle english .
like chaucer .
just imagine .

Loathe it. Dd's teacher in year 4 wrote ' 'could of', on her homework, ( so disappointed) but resigned.

And "you are joking me". No! You are joking. And 'Road liable to flooding'. Infuriating!
Prone to flooding, or liable to flood, surely. Rant over, until I think of another one.

I have to keep my mouth firmly shut over "could of" at work.

They obviously had no idea what "could've " actually means 🤔
One of our local estate agents also likes to describe properties as being "off of" the High Street or with a utility room "off of" the kitchen . What?!?

@Lizzie48 - he/she said heard it/saw it in an email from an American friend. Presumably she has spoken to the friend as well as emailed them, so I was just curious as to whether some accents pronounced could've differently to could of.

I have learned over the years that different accents pronounce things differently 😁

YANBU!! I thought it was just me, when I see bad grammar such as " I want to loose some weight " or to instead of too for example!

Oh yes and quite, as in "it's very quite in here tonight"arrgh

Also there instead of their

Grammar- you should have whisked out a red pen & corrected it - I would of

I remember as a child thinking it was 'could of', but that was because I didn't understand the grammar. Once I understood it, I didn't make the mistake anymore.

I don't think it's a dialect thing. Contractions are standard in spoken English, e.g. 'it's' for 'it is' and 'you're' for 'you are'. But we don't do this in formal written English.

Haitch instead of aitch and
Are defiantly could of got a chester drawers arrrggghhh.

Nanny- yes language evolves but there is no logical evolution from could have to could of - if just doesn't make sense.

Sorry, I should've finished by saying that if you're going to use the contraction, which is fair enough as we're not writing essays on here, at least get them right.