I’ve seen would/could of so often lm beginning to think it’s correct.

[ArseInTheCoOpWindow]

It is would have and could have isn’t it?

Or am l losing my mind?

I'm with you.

I genuinely thought this was something only kids wrote until I came on Mumsnet. I couldn't believe so many adults could have such poor grammar. I'm old and we'd have been pulled up at primary school for this kind of basic error.

It's not you. I hate this so much. It's everywhere!

I hate this so much. I know a Y6 teacher who does this and it makes me cringe every time she writes it.

Oh god yes I hate it too!

The two I have to stop and think about after years of reading shit on the internet are "bare" vs "bear" and "rein" and "reign". I've grown so familiar with seeing them used interchangeably that I hardly notice anymore.

You're right though, it's could have/would have. Meh, people fuck grammar up all the time, I just try not to do it at work!

OP, I actually had the same thought today. It's horrific. I feel similarly about your and you're. A year or so ago, I would almost gasp out loud when I saw 'hope your OK' and now I barely seem to notice. We must fight this!

Same. Bugs me so much.

And the use of "too" all the time instead of "to". I'm sure there are various reasons for it - but the proliferation of poor grammar on social media absolutely normalises it, and so it snowballs.....

@Chunkymenrock (and yes, they do rock BTW) I had an email where "your" was misused - by a SOLICITOR.

God save us all.

@HandyBendySandy

The two I have to stop and think about after years of reading shit on the internet are "bare" vs "bear" and "rein" and "reign". I've grown so familiar with seeing them used interchangeably that I hardly notice anymore.

You're right though, it's could have/would have. Meh, people fuck grammar up all the time, I just try not to do it at work!

Someone in a customer service email asked me to ‘bare with them’ recently & I really, really had to resist the urge to respond that I never strip on the first date...

I’m a teacher and I’m sure I’m catching bad grammar from the kids. I’ve got to the stage where I don’t know how to spell or write anymore.

I tried to explain it to someone recently, by commenting that they would never say 'I of hurt myself', so why are they saying 'I could of hurt myself'? They just looked at me ABSOLUTELY BLANKLY. Not a clue. (Scream...bang head on desk...send help...)

Hate hate hate should of, could of! I’ve also just seen a post on FB from someone I know who is a teacher stating she is ‘most happiest’ when she is walking her dog 🙄

I have the same experience, OP. But once it becomes universal, it will be part of the 'correct' language, in the way that 'a nuncle' became 'an uncle'. By the way I wonder if texting has anything to do with it? 'Could of' is shorter and easier to text than 'could have'. I often see 'cud' for 'could', too.

Oh gosh, yes. I couldn't possibly see it as correct, it just grates so much.

Someone upthread mentioned 'too' for 'to'. I think that annoys me even more than 'could of/should of' because when I read it I automatically emphasise 'too' and that changes the sense of what I'm reading.

There was a thread that had could of/ would of in the title. It was just making my head explode every time l saw it🤯

I’m a teacher too. And yes, unfortunately bad grammar is catching. You become brainwashed!

'Had of' has crept in too recently.

It's used in some books isn't it (Of Mice and Men comes to mind)? I always thought is was to emphasise the character's lack of education/literacy. It probably wouldn't be noticed now!

So annoying! I always thought it came from not hearing the phrase could've, should've properly. The one that gets me is 'alot' - even when many other people in the chat are using a lot correctly. Do they think everyone else is wrong? If you type in 'alot' to Google you get some lovely pictures of a monster someone made - an alot doing different things. So funny!

A new one I’ve seen recently is several posters saying about how much their pet malts.

Pet ‘malts’ 🤮

I remember at school chanting
‘Could have had it, should have had it’

I'm with you on should of, alot, thankyou.

Can I please add "que" instead of "cue", as in "cue the crying"?

I've just seen a post from a friend on Facebook of some laminated cards she sells for her own business with sentences on to help children read.
And it doesn't have an apostrophe where it should be in one of the sentences and a capital in the middle of another sentence!
I can't cope!
If I saw a business selling that I wouldn't want to buy anything off them!

Never mind the speech marks that are missing