Of of of of of of of of of of

[BrickBiscuit]

That's the approximate number of rogue 'of's I have seen on Mumsnet posts today alone. 'Should of', 'would of', even an 'I of' somewhere. It is spread by repetition. Should we counter by correcting every instance we can, and enforce the correct use of 'have' by repetition?

Incidentally, my title is an old crossword clue. Do solve it if you like.

YABU: no, we should leave the 'of' people unchallenged;
YANBU: yes, let's have a campaign to correct each and every instance of the error.

🙋🏻 🙋🏻🙋🏻 A full stop, Miss!

I'm always mystified when posters reveal that they have a well, or very well paid job in a badly written post full of grammatical and spelling errors. How do they get away with it?

You would think all the pedants on this thread would use the correct topic.

And the endless putting of the self in front of the other.

Always put the other mentioned person before you…

ie ‘Bob and me/I’ rather than ‘Me and Bobby’

I hear it all the time and it really grates.

What would be the point of preaching to the choir in that way?

As an aside, is it ‘for fuck’s sake’ or ‘for fucks’ sake’?

It’s for a work email so I want it to sound professional.

I didn't know that existed - thank you! I have found my people at last ...

Can I just say, I spent some time trying to figure out what "brick biscuit" could mean in a crossword 🤦 reading comprehension fail 😂

No, I'm not discussing pedantry. I'm advocating wholesale correction of a burgeoning error.

I was brought up to be judgemental and also my school humiliated those that got this sort of thing wrong. That has served me in allowing me to be correct most of the time. However I now feel that this judgemental approach is wrong and mistakes are unimportant. If someone makes a spelling, syntax or grammar error it is usually due to them not having the same repressed upbringing as me, or they had poor schooling or they couldn't or didn't grasp the teaching at school for some reason. My only exception to live and let live in this respect is when something comes home from school from a teacher which is poor, which is alarmingly frequent.

😂

Bloody Hell
I bet you change towels daily too

Au contraire.

It is perfectly acceptable to write

I must try harder and go to the shops today.

It has a different meaning to

I must try harder to go to the shops today.

The first is two things - motivating yourself (non-time specific and non-activity specific) and a time-specific activity.

The second is a single activity.

You cannot trust that published work is correct, so not even plenty of reading will teach you correct English now. Many books contain errors, some are repeated throughout a book, so not a one-off that was missed by the proof-reader.

My ire is reserved for people who email to say they will "revert back" to me. Possibly a peri side effect but it makes me want to weep. See also the confusion of "effect" and "affect" - saw 'effected' used incorrectly in a BBC News article this week...the difference between the two is material to the understanding of the reader. I gave up worrying about the subtle but significant difference between disinterested and uninterested years ago. Is this what progress looks like?

I suppose there's more of an audience for their superiority in AIBU.

Hell doesn't need to be capitalised

That's because the correct form hasn't been enforced. A person can have good grammar and spelling having had a rigorous, yet enjoyable academic experience.

It is perfectly acceptable to write

I must try harder and go to the shops today.

U wot m8?

Join us. It's therapeutic!

Not really. Nobody regularly using Pedants' Corner needs to have the correct use of "have" explained to them.

I've found that there's rarely an error in the works of Robert Harris.

Random capitalisation is annoying:
"My Best Friend is a Nurse..."

What has having a below ground water source got to do with lucrative employment?

But what's the point of preaching to the choir?