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?

One had a picture of a short caterpillar and a picture of a longer one and it asked "Which is the longest?"

What's wrong with that? blush

A comparative deals with two items whereas a superlative deals with three or more. Therefore, if you have two children, one is the younger and the other is the elder; technically, if somebody has an eldest or youngest child, they must have at least three children.

Lots of people don't seem to know this, but teachers really should understand it. If they don't, that is probably why most people grow up not knowing it.

Writing clearly and concisely is a skill which the op hasn’t mastered.

I say could have. Throw in a Salford accent though it sounds like could of.

I also don’t pronounce my ‘ths’. I mean I can, and do when I concentrate, so when teaching, and interviews, pleases I need to sound a little more professional, but my default would be to say:

‘Free cups of tea’ instead of ‘three cups of tea’

This is spoken only though.

The ones I see most on my facebook are "could of", "loose" instead of "lose" and "your" instead of "you're". It's everywhere. Reading the comments on public facebook pages is the worst..

I was watching masterchef last week and
John said something along the lines of

“Can’t wait to see what you have prepared for gregg and I”

Gave me the rage

Oxford Dictionaries "Snuck. Past and past participle of sneak." "A real word chiefly used in North American English." Hope MN isn't above allowing a little North American English?

Interesting that MNHQ have let this thread run. Normally, anything that criticises the way people speak and/or write is either deleted or immediately move to Pedants' Corner .....

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll, in the way that some people struggle with grammar, you then, must struggle with comprehension.

Which many seem to on here. I see lots of "I can't understand your post" or just "eh?".

That's fine, of course. It is a public forum and not assignment.

You just move on to something you can understand, or help with, or rather that's what you should do, instead of the usual "you what?", gobshite replies that the OP does get.

As someone in a going-to-the-dogs area of Liverpool, just out of interest to those that want to take the piss out of anyone without grammar, do you get involved in campaigning against the Cuts, in Cities, such as mine, that have been hit hard?

Do you get involved with anything to do with raising educational standards?

Do you just take the piss out of individuals and not do anything to improve yourselves? You've got real issues when something made up (language) bothers you to the extent that it does.

@BlueThursday
At least he didn’t say Gregg and myself!

My personal favourite is Escape Goat

Glass houses OP. Best you get off your high horses & worry about your own house burning down 🤣

Oxford Dictionaries "Snuck. Past and past participle of sneak." "A real word chiefly used in North American English." Hope MN isn't above allowing a little North American English?

Many on MN struggle with anything that isn't "local" to the point that you think you are in Royston Valley.

Just go onto the Baby Name threads, were the most ridiculous names are celebrated, as long as they are English. Whereas Hebrew, Greek, Afican etc names, as declared as 'made up', because the posters don't know anyone whose used them.

Birdsgottafly African spelt wrong. Good this, innit? :-D

So glad snuck is already in the dictionary!

I'm with you OP, I loathe and detest could/would/should of. I also hate the incorrect use of 'myself' and there appears to be a bit of an epidemic on here of weird stuff like: 'we should of went to the doctor ...' and using wrong tenses.

KlutzyDraconequus

Sentence doesn’t have an ‘a’ in it.

Birds- agreed.
There is a generation of poor spellers and users of English.
Because in the 70s and 80s grammar and spelling simply wasn't taught in schools to the extent it is in other countries, or to the extent it is now.

Many teachers are among those people who would not have had the grounding in SPaG that is needed. Fact.

I'm sure our keyboard warrior OP and her blog-googling-for-rules friends spend just as much time volunteering in adult literacy classes to help this generation catch up with skills in their own language, skills that successive governments just put to one side.

I think that some of it is due to the UK education system in the 1970s/1980s. I looked at some of my late-1980s GCSE English coursework recently and it is full of uncorrected “should/could ofs”, despite my receiving A grades. I wasn’t aware that it was incorrect until I was much older. I am very aware of correct grammar now, due to my job - although I’m sure that someone could still point out errors in this post (please don’t ). I have children at primary school and they are taught grammar in a way that we never were, so maybe it will be less of a issue with younger people.

Posted before I had seen the post above - I agree.

Get over yourself ffs

I imagine parsing is never taught in schools now?

Another one which annoys me is 'know' and 'no', as in 'I don't no where the shop is' - aaaarghhh!

I had a professional person ask whether my DS was illegible for something. I really struggled not to correct that. And please please don't say gunnu, if you can't say going to or even gonna, let's not talk.

YANBU. If I come across it in a post, I abandon the post. I judge and so do most literate people.

This is interesting about the 70s and 80s.
The should of people I have encountered were usually late 20s or early 30s. Maybe it's even more recent change with SPAG at schools?

See also ‘alot’
Which may have already been mentioned
Plus ‘draws’ for drawers