...to remind you that it's "could have" not "could of"

[LostInShoebiz]

Just that. It's my pet hate and I can take no more.

It really is wholly bizarre that MN will push this thread over into Pedants' Corner yet strongly resist having a separate trans forum. If it's wrong to hide away trans posts, it's surely equally wrong to hide away a thread about an issue of much more general application - particularly one which is of particular relevance given that most of us have children who have to deal with a school system that puts much more emphasis on SPAG than was the case in the past.

Pushed to the Corner and yet posts haranguing users about plastic use stay front and centre. Sigh.

particularly one which is of particular relevance given that most of us have children who have to deal with a school system that puts much more emphasis on SPAG than was the case in the past

If that's correct Gnu, maybe future adults will write better English than current adults and all the could ofs etc will die out?

I don't remember being taught much in the way of grammar at primary school as I think I am of the generation where it fell off the curriculum and my primary age education was heavily interrupted by the teachers' strikes of the early 1980s.

Maybe, Barbara. But it would help them to learn, and to do well in exams, if all the adults around them would bother to make the effort to write properly.

You could of told us earlier you know!

Mumsnet isn't an indictment of the level or the way that people write. The number of actual posts/posters would probably be quite a small sample of the population and not necessarily representative.

I don't like 'would of' or 'should of' either. I wouldn't use them ever. I don't write in text speak and I don't use the acronyms here either. I just think that as annoying as mis-spellings and grammatical errors are, they're not so distracting that I really can't understand what's been written.

I'm all for making sure that children are taught how to spell and use grammar properly. I can't though see that there's any elegant way to preach or dictate that to adults on a chatboard who haven't asked and I think it ought to be quite obvious that offence would be taken by posters who use those words incorrectly.

That's my view anyway. I visit this board quite often to check things that I'm not sure of and it's really helpful. I don't see this thread being moved here as a slight on the topic. As far as I can see, all the useful threads have specific boards, perhaps as an easier point of reference than trying to find them on the general boards?

I've just seen hadn’t of been in an OP . The rest of the post seems OK.

I know this is an old thread.