Being irritated at "would of, could of....."

[DuchessOfDisaster]

I cringe when I see this written down. Along with "defiantly" for definitely and other examples. I don't see there is ever any excuse. And the excuse that "language evolves" doesn't wash, because "to of" is not a verb and never will be no matter how language evolves. It's not the same as adopting words from other cultures, new words like selfies, or a different meaning for "sick", for example.

OK, when we say "would've", "could've" etc, it may SOUND similar, but that's no excuse either. It implies the writer has never seen "would have" etc written down, therefore doesn't read much. What did they do at school? Was this style of writing used then and never corrected?

Another cringeworthy example is the inability to differentiate between there/they're/their and your/you're.

Just why do people do it and worse, why is it excused?

I’m totally with you OP. It’s just sheer laziness in many cases and absolutely nothing to do with dyslexia. ( I say that as a teacher with two dyslexic children. )

@Mushypeasandchipstogo

I’m totally with you OP. It’s just sheer laziness in many cases and absolutely nothing to do with dyslexia. ( I say that as a teacher with two dyslexic children. )

There are so many ignorant people on this thread.

@pointythings

Ah! That’s the bit I missed. I thought the comment was in reference to Y8s in a British school. 🤦‍♀️

@Mushypeasandchipstogo

I’m totally with you OP. It’s just sheer laziness in many cases and absolutely nothing to do with dyslexia. ( I say that as a teacher with two dyslexic children. )

In that case it's extra disappointing you fail to acknowledge the many other reasons people may not have the same grammatical awareness or academic ability as you.

You've used two unnecessary spaces within the parentheses in your post. That's the sort of thing I wouldn't ever dream of bringing up normally (because I'm not a judgemental twit and would have no opinion on something that doesn't affect me) but since you're happy to judge others, I'm sure you are open to learning to improve your own writing skills.

You're welcome.

I’ve been working 121 with three adults during lockdown. They all fell through the gaps in the system for literacy. They have all been absolutely brilliant in how far they’ve come and I hope people like you don’t put them off.

This week, the it homework is to sign up to a board, such as Mumsnet and participate -read the posts and respond to threads that interest them, to use and develop their new skills. I do hope they don’t come across someone like you.

@DuchessOfDisaster

You misunderstood you spelt okay wrong in your op

Picking up the "should of" batin again, many years ago I worked for a big, multinational bank and through my role, got too know a number of PA's. There was one occasion when one of them was typing from dictation and included the words "should of". They just did not know it was a contraction. They'd been to secretarial college, etc.

I wonder if part of the problem now is that some people consider their education finished the moment they leave school/college/university? My school was pretty poor. We didn't learn grammar, syntax or context unless we were studying A Level English Literature which had a poetry module. Teachers were more likely to throw something at you in frustration rather than help correct errors.

Whilst I do appreciate in spoken communication it isn't so important, in the written word, there is scope for misunderstanding and misrepresentation if things are not written clearly and correctly.
The "should of" I refer to would have just reflected badly on an organisation that had a good reputation. In other instances, the may be complications. I have a friend who cannot differentiate between 'accept' and 'except' despite the very different meanings.

And autocorrect decided "batin" was a valid word as I hit the post button.

[quote Sparklesocks]@DuchessOfDisaster well yes, no shit. Doesn’t mean we need to look down at them though does it.[/quote]
Agree with you

Though it irks me, I can't get particularly pressed about it. As long as you can understand someone, it hardly matters that much on a day to day basis. Yes on a job application or in professional work it doesnt look good but I do think we all need to be much more open minded about these things. People have different backgrounds and challenges.

It makes sense, whereas would of, could of don't make sense, because you cannot "of" anything. Of is not a verb.

Banging on about parts of speech is not helpful. Lots of people don't know what a verb is. Besides, it does make sense, in that there's not a single English speaker who wouldn't understand what you meant of you said 'I could of done that'.