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.

That's a plural possessive. Parent's dog would refer to only one parent. Parents' refers to both. It's purely stylistic I think. It just looks and sounds better than parents's 😂

But the 'of' error is now creeping into professional settings

It's crept into my local newspaper. It's crept into the quarterly report from a charity I support. I've said "run this past me before you print it please"
I left school and got a job at 15. Yet I'm asking the uni grad to let me check
her newsletter for grammar and spelling. And she does.

Think someone needs a life

just saw a post saying, "...they don’t seem to of gone too well,"

It makes my heart sink.

Perhaps these people are exhausted after a long day at work, they lead busy lives, they are secure enough in themselves that they do not feel generic conversation typed up on the internet needs to be corrected? They do not have time or the inclination, to sit around and worry about something so unimportant? This is not a C.V., or an important piece of written work; it's just Mumsnet. It's not that deep

That's rubbish. People know how to write. They don't just decide to do it wrong because they're tired. I mean, my name is Julia. I wouldn't just decide to type iaulj just because I was tired. The capacity to spell properly does not leave you just because you are a bit tired.

Obviously haven't RTFT but let's talk about adverbs.

Because no fucker uses them any more.

It drives me bonkers.

Agreed.

Grammar comes naturally if one knows it.

Tiredness. Bollox.

People just don't read books anymore.

That would be the dog that belongs to both of your parents.
'Parents' is already a plural noun. The apostrophe is used here to show possession not plurality.

I think someone needs to learn a new cliché.

I would be tempted to reply 'Thank you for your recent email. I haven't got a well, so please don't keep asking me about it.'

Yes, I absolutely wouldn't pick up someone's grammar when they are telling me about their life.

However, grammar and being able to express oneself is really important.

I do have conflict here, my mother is an autodidact, and my father was public school and Oxford educated.

So! An interesting juxtapose.

Hubby and I were talking about it earlier.

Because you wouldn't say "Me was talking about X" or "Myself was talking about X."

Also;

You and I...

So few people know;

You and I, WE

US; You and ME

People just don't read books anymore

It's my belief that the lack of capacity to read a book, and get enjoyment from it, is really very sad for today's children. I read books from a very early age, throughout my teen years and still read a book a week to this day.

It's how you learn grammar, and how to spell, and how to put words together, and how to lengthen or shorten them. How to weave a picture. How to open up your mind, your own mind ( not something presented to you on a screen)
To use your own imagination.

It's such a shame that children now just turn on a computer and have a pretend world that somebody else has programmed for them.
Same. same. same thing that everyone else is doing.

I'm gutted for today's children, honestly. My childhood was far from ideal, but not a minute of it was spent staring at a screen.

It's not even that, it's the joy of words

It's not even that, it's the joy of words

Yeah. I was just taking baby steps.

I'm very sparse with my words.

That's why people continue to be unable to spell

Ya! I like to use the words.

It's sad I think.

I'm very sparse with my words

Understood

Only acceptable if they're talking about Francis Rossi and his mates.

Therefore they're helping, but it's unclear what they're trying to do alongside helping.

Really? I always capitalise it. It's a place name, isn't it? I mean technically. Obviously it doesn't exist.

They may feel all that, but basic courtesy means that if you post on a forum like this you make basic efforts to make your post easy to read. It really isn't hard to type "have" instead of "of", and no-one is so exhausted that that is beyond them - or if they are, they should be resting, not messing around on social media. If you don't bother, essentially you are saying that you are so self-important and entitled that it's fine to force everyone else to struggle with working out what you mean, rather than that you should have to go to the effort to type a few more letters.

@BrickBiscuit Oftentimes people need educating.