I heard someone actually say "would of"

[WinterKitchen]

I thought people wrote it because they say "would've" but aren't very good at spelling. I never thought people actually said it but it seems they do.

It's a circle though - what are people actually aiming to say? I'm saying 'would've' but it would certainly sound like 'would of' quite easily, and then people write that down and then people say it because they've seen it written down etc. And so then 'would of' actually means in effect 'would've' to people.

At the end of the day people tend to understand the meaning regardless.

People say it all the time! If they think it's written 'would of', then I don't know why they wouldn't pronounce it 'would of'.

Because it doesn't make sense. Would you say or write 'I of been to ..' or 'I of done...'?

Surely it's obvious that people think it's would of? That's why they write it would of, not would have. Why wouldn't people say would of out loud if that's what they think the phrase is?

People don't think that much about it generally. Or they don't care. My DS says would of. He knows it's wrong but it's ingrained and he doesn't care enough to correct himself.

People understand the meaning. They're not thinking about it that closely.

From bad to worse. A line from another thread today (about building materials) reads: "The mesh also seems to of stretched and snapped in places"

My old english teacher would have made you stand up and conjugate the verb if she had heard you say would of or could of 😂

I think Would Of is almost a regional variant. My friend with a PhD in English says it. She’s from Plymouth. I don’t know how she writes it though.

It's universal. Various overseas friends and I message each other with examples we find, rolling our eyes as we do so. It's so bad we now only send the very worst as there are so many.

When I say 'would've' it sounds like 'would of'.

So? Régional accents vary. This is exactly how you get changes in spelling, pronunciation and language change.

DH both says and writes would of. If I had noticed before we got married I WOULD HAVE called it off.

I once snapped and shouted (not farted), would have, could have, should have, at him but it was no use. I have made sure the DCs say and write it correctly.

But it's grammatically incorrect and makes no sense.

It makes no sense if you write it like that or think it is actually would of. So I agree that it’s unlikely to change spelling.

But you’re talking about pronunciation, which is a different thing.

Pleased to hear your children will not fall into this. I would reject a job applicant who used 'of' instead of 'have', and probably even qualify any friendship on the same basis. Although 'of' is now in the dictionary as such on grounds of usage, it is labelled "uneducated", "never correct" and "should not be used".

@BellissimoGeckoIt's not a variant or change, it's a mistake made with lack of correct knowledge.

Yes, but you cannot definitely hear the mistake when someone speaks. You can read it, but not hear it.

It's not new though. I remember a girl in the office being pulled up on it by a manager in the mid 70s. The difference now is that he probably wouldn't dare criticise the way she spoke.

It's not a regional accent it's the wrong words. It makes no grammatical sense.

I have definitely heard people stress the 'of' so it is obvious.

Most people I know say it (and write it).

It annoys me, but meh.

If you speak fast enough with a Southern english accent, you really can't hear the difference.

This doesn't bother me at all as it's just a indiscriminanate vowel followed by a "v". Dropping "t"s and using an adjective instead of an adverb, which i have noticed creeping from america winds me up more.

If you heard me speak you would hear me pronounce “of” and “ve” exactly the same. So you would wrongly think that I’m saying “would of”, for example.

The only way you can know is seeing it written down.

I just reply “it would HAVE been… yes” as though echoing. They usually get it and repeat it back correctly. 🤣