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.

Nobody is actually struggling to understand what “should of” or “try and” means

The thing is, there are such double standards on MN. It's apparently completely acceptable to slag off other people's parenting, money management, tidiness, cleanliness and hygiene, cooking, work practices, driving, etc etc; but dare to suggest in a thread that someone maybe meant "would have" instead of "would of" and you're liable to be subject to a total pile-on that completely takes the thread off-track.

It rather depends. Some posts are so badly written that it really is difficult to understand them. In other cases it just jars, so that people lose the sense of what a poster is saying because they are distracted by dreadful grammar usage.

In either case it's mostly avoidable. Virtually no-one went through 11 years of compulsory education being told that "could of" is correct. For all that many people suddenly claim dyslexia when these errors are pointed out, it's generally blatantly obvious from their posts that they aren't dyslexic and, in any event, that isn't the type of error that is caused by dyslexia. I always find it quite distasteful when people who clearly are not dyslexic use it as an excuse, and I do know what I'm talking about through years of experience of working in that field.

Have a Flake in your Pedant's Cornet. 🍦

Presumably that’s because the parenting practices etc are the subject of the thread and something the OP has deliberately submitted for feedback.

Yanbu. I don’t reply to any OP’s who write alot abit ect, either. And the new one, Chat GBT.

Or what about ..’ I seen’.. & ..’I done’..That sends me into overdrive 😖🤣🤣

And ‘we was’

This thread makes me really nervous. My spelling and grammar isn’t great, I know this. I read back some emails or threads and can see what I meant to type but my brain misses out words a lot.

I am not naturally good at languages (any languages).

If someone corrects my spelling or grammar in a thread my response isn’t gratitude, I feel embarrassed, definitely don’t take in what they said and generally think the poster is a bit of a twit.

I have never corrected posters when they talk about nasty chemicals because I know what they mean.

Gotten 😡

You assume people don't know
They know and don't care

Might eventually cause the language to change 🤣
I studied the Canterbury tales in A level English literature, we have somehow murdered the English Language 😄

We call them language puritans, otherwise known as nit pickers, they don't realise how annoying they are too

Should try to if it is followed by a very. Eg work hard, study etc. But if -

A ) I don’t have confidence to speak in public, recently I came across a course in public speaking but not sure if will help.

B) You should try and see maybe it helps.

Is ‘should try and ‘ in this scenario wrong?

It’s pretty sad if they know and still continue using of

It depends. If a person is in a crisis, I agree it’s not nice. But in normal, casual posts, why is it a problem?

I would love to be told gently if I make any grammatical mistakes. This is how we learn. It’s also a bit lazy to use would have, should have. When they read would have, should have - what do they think they are reading? Unless they have Dyslexia or any Sen issues then it’s understandable.

Would everyone be happy with teachers not correcting their children’s punctuation, grammar and spelling? If so what the hell. Let’s all just let it be!

Another one
Writing 'her' when she is correct.
Her and her husband went... , She and her husband went...

You might not mind, but surely you are not so egocentric as to believe you speak for everybody?

That’s always been common to hear where I’m from. Some differences in speech are just plain wrong BUT some are regional dialect/colloquialisms so maybe don’t be so judgey?

I think you’re just being difficult. When a post is so badly written it’s actually hard to understand, most people just say “I really can’t understand that”. Usually it’s a sign of someone in serious crisis or ESOL.

What doesn’t happen is that people start nit-picking every damn thing in the post. That’s reserved for people who make one obvious but basically comprehensible mistake that certain people feel the need to seize upon and “educate” the OP for their own betterment or whatever.

Also most people pulled up on their grammar don’t “suddenly” claim dyslexia, they tell the nit-picker to fuck off and try and focus on the content of the post, thanks ;-)

I don’t know how you interpreted me being egocentric from this. Do you always overreact?

That doesn't bother me - it's a spelling error IMO and there aren't so many threads where the word is used.

But of of of of is simply the wrong word and it's in every thread!

‘Revert back’ always annoys me as ‘back’ is redundant.

Also, when discreet and discrete are used incorrectly in text.

People are using wonder in place of wander now.

'I was wondering around' 😬

That's one of the grammar errors that practically sets my teeth on edge. My inner pedant gets all snidey and says "Go on then, conjugate the verb "to of"".

I don't do it though, because I realise this is a "me" problem, not the problem of the author.

For the best part of 20 years, I worked in a role that involved vetting reports before they were unleashed on the public and I think I still mentally have that red pen in my hand when reading. And pedantry about language is one of the ways my autism manifests itself.