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Original poster

Could have been v could of been

29 replies

abc123d · 09/08/2012 22:26

I am a little bit confused with "could of been" etc because English is not my first language. I see the use of "could of" regularly when read comments but did not notice this new fashion or whatever it is last year though. Is it prevalent in chat groups?

OP posts:
Roseformeplease · 09/08/2012 22:29

Could have is correct. We shorten it in writing to could've and so it gets mispronounced as could of and then used incorrectly in writing. How you speak is up to you but could of is incorrect. Chat rooms have their own etiquette but I don't bother with ones that use text language or have many, many mistakes in posts. I am too much of a pedant, as you can see.

newbielisa · 09/08/2012 22:32

Could of is predominantly used by people who don't know any better. Being restrained here and really want to say by

dumb arses!!
Could have been an Olympic sprinter if I wasn't so lazy.
Could have said something inappropriate to the overweight lady who parked in p and c spot at Tesco and then got her dog out (and didn't even go into Tesco).

PorkyandBess · 09/08/2012 22:32

Have have have.

'Could of' makes me want to cry, especially when it's my 40 year old friends posting it on FB.

stargirl1701 · 09/08/2012 22:34

It's could have been.

The confusion is with the contraction - could've been.

Some people can't hear the 've' and pronounce it 'of'...and then go on to write it sigh

It's something I teach to death with my classes Grin

Original poster
abc123d · 09/08/2012 22:38

I see now. I do not use chatrooms except mumsnet which is a bit different. I like reading comments under the articles. It surprises me that even people from other countries who live the comments also use "could of". I have also noticed that some editors put "an" before history.

OP posts:
Original poster
abc123d · 09/08/2012 22:41

"leave", not "live" comments

OP posts:
OhYoshimi · 09/08/2012 22:44

'An' does go before 'h'. It is silent, but this isn't so common anymore. My dad always used to say "it's AITCH, not HAITCH!"
An hotel
An horror movie??

usualsuspect · 09/08/2012 22:47

'Could of' doesn't bother me.

Maybe I'm just a dumb arse though.

Original poster
abc123d · 09/08/2012 23:00

OhYoshimi, how odd. I have always thought that "a" goes before "history" and not "an".

OP posts:
PigletJohn · 09/08/2012 23:33

"An" goes before words which have a silent "h" for example because they are foreign words such as "an hotel" if you are a snooty ponce

"A" goes before English words that begin with an "h" such as " a house" "a horrible hat" "a hearing aid" "a high horse" "A history of the Roman Empire"

If you have a regional dialect that drops the "h" then you might say "an 'orrible day." If you were writing reported speech, or a script for "Fools and Horses" then you would write it as "An 'orse an' cart" "

KandyBarr · 10/08/2012 07:50

Hope no one minds a related grammar point: it's 'bored with...' rather than 'bored of....'. The latter doesn't make sense.

So its: 'I'm so bored WITH ballet flats'
Definitely not: 'I'm so bored OF ballet flats."

KitKatGirl1 · 10/08/2012 08:53

I have seen 'could of' used by people who say they are teachers. And 'definately'. And 'it's hat' (there's no possessive apostrophe with pronouns).

I want to scream. I also want to start a thread on teachers who can't spell. But imagined I would of (ha ha) got flamed for it.

KitKatGirl1 · 10/08/2012 08:54

My ds's teacher was not very happy when I corrected her correction of his use of 'comprises'. It does not take the preposition 'of'...

GrendelsMum · 10/08/2012 10:10

I'd say that 'an hotel', although it used to be correct and logical (as 'hotel' was pronounced 'otel'), is now very definitely dated and unnecessary.

Presumably it would be correct in US English to say 'an herb', since 'herb' in US English has a silent h, but in UK English it would be 'a herb'.

ameliagrey · 11/08/2012 15:52

And while we are on with all of this, why do people now ( sometimes) say "off of" when they mean "off".

eg "I fell off of the seat".

I just don't get this confusion and the addition of the "of".

You hear it all the time Angry

stargirl1701 · 11/08/2012 18:05

Try being a teacher seeing teachers use 'could of'. I need to be restrained Grin

My HT can't use apostrophes. I get my class to correct the newsletter!

GettingAMedalSoon · 12/08/2012 07:57

Don't get me started on apostrophes! This forum should have an autocorrect for all the plurals with erroneous apostrophes - it would be very busy....

PigletJohn · 12/08/2012 10:42

Your a bunch of pendant's

stargirl1701 · 12/08/2012 13:44
Grin
suedpantsoffem · 18/08/2012 00:24

Piglet - I think you mean "pedants"!!Smile

PigletJohn · 18/08/2012 00:28

I nose what I means, Miss Suede Pants.

CouthyMow · 18/08/2012 00:44

The "It's hat" one is often the result of a particularly irritating habit of an iPhone to Autocorrect "its" to "it's". You have to second guess that that correction will happen, stop typing mid sentence, click the minuscule cross, and THEN continue typing when you are on an iPhone and wish to type "its".

It gets to the point where if Steve Jobs wasn't dead, I'd throttle his for crimes against Grammar!

CouthyMow · 18/08/2012 00:48

And "Could of" makes my teeth itch, and gets me screaming could have, could HAVE, COULD HAVE.

I am the same with off of, should of and would of. All things I routinely see and hear local to me!

CouthyMow · 18/08/2012 00:49

Him. See. Yet another Autocorrect.

PigletJohn · 18/08/2012 10:11

turn off predictive text, perhaps.

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