Primary School Grammar

[Idontpostmuch]

Question for primary school teachers. Why do so many people on Mumsnet type 'could of', 'would of' etc? How can they not know that they're trying to use contractions such as 'could've'? Do basic things like this have to take a back seat due to a much fuller curriculum than previously? Also, when you come across such posts, do you cringe, or doesn't it bother you?

Because when you say ‘could’ve’ It sounds like ‘could of’
Nothing to do with primary school

I’m assuming most Mumsnet users left primary many years ago. Should have/ should of doesn’t bother me in adults; it still gets the point across.

It annoys me intensely. I was a teacher and would have corrected it every time. It makes no sense grammatically.

I remember primary school being obsessed with teaching spelling but I have no memory of us actually being taught grammar.
That was the 80s.
Possibly that was the teaching trend back then.

It's such a shame that elocution isn't part of the primary school curriculum then these horrors wouldn't happen.

It's nothing to do with elocution it's grammar.

I don’t thing grammar is really taught very much at school and hasn’t been for years. It was only when I started learning Latin that I was taught a lot of grammatical concepts.

Yes! Being back electrocution to the curriculum!

It is grammar, and elocution enables accurate grammar and RP to be maintained while regional accents are eliminated.

Yes it irritates me especially if it’s a person who is employed to know better ..
I heard a BBC radio local news broadcaster say grie- vee- ous bodily harm instead of grievous on each hourly news bulletin last week … 🤦🏻‍♀️

Primary curriculum includes SPAG- Spelling, punctuation and grammar.
it includes teaching contractions. Unfortunately you need parents to understand and reinforce them.

I think grammar is taught in schools, yesterday my 8 year old DGC had a piece of text and her homework was to identify and underline all the adverbs. Could of rather than the correct could have is just lazy speech.

They teach grammar now but I don’t remember learning grammar in the 80s.

It’s purely because ‘could’ve’ does sound like could of. People have really different levels of education and abilities to learn. I hugely struggled at school but was ‘lucky’ enough to have strict teacher parents who drilled all this into me- although my lack of high academic achievement will always be a disappointment to them.

You want to eliminate regional accents and have everyone speaking RP? That's insane. Maybe you don't understand the difference between accent and dialect. RP is an accent Standard English (aka 'good' grammar) is a dialect. It is perfectly possible to speak Standard English in a regional dialect.

Greatly amused by this. Years ago, soon after I'd relocated, colleagues were trying to give me 'elocution lessons.' All lighthearted fun and friendly. With my West of Scotland accent my attempts caused a lot of laughter. Many years later I still sound the same. I can assure you that I have never said or written 'could of'. Nor have I ever misused the verb 'comprise,' used comma splices or fallen prey to dangling participles. Our accents are part of us, not something to be eradicated.

Both my posts are written in jest.

Far from wanting to eradicate accents, I want to see them preserved. There's more uniformity in how people speak than there was before mass media and large-scale movement of people for work. Not good!

I am 52 and only found out about this, when I went to University. We had absolutely no grammar taught to us as a the backlash against very dry teaching of the 60s and before

I want to preserve regional accents. My posts are written tongue-in-cheek. Very few people speak RP now, and much of the snobbery that used to exist about regional accents has gone.

Do you mean bring back?

And does she mean electrocution or elocution?

I think definitely electrocution. Quite funny but the joke fell flat because of the 'being' typo.