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.

I’m going to add “we shouldn’t have went there” and my pet hate is people who say “absolutely” instead of Yes. What if the answer is “absolutely not!”

I am loving all the correcting of the people who are pro correcting other peoples spelling
You are hilarious 😂

But you needed to learn and how else would you have if they hadn’t have corrected you ? You couldn’t have possibly stayed in your work role unless you did. My school was so terrible it was completely shut down shortly after I left and it wasn’t until I started work and the people around gently but firmly corrected my grammar every time until I got it and I improved - It was a legal office based role so the wording mattered. I’m forever grateful to them. Schooling happens in lots of places not just schools.

You absolutely can tell the difference between someone typing in a rush and making a spelling error and someone who feels what they’re writing is correct.

If their “ignorance” doesn’t bother them, why do you feel the need to take it upon yourself to fix it for them? Perhaps they find they get along just fine in the world, making themselves understood very well, despite their imperfect grammar.

I think we can all relax about language degrading. There have always been people who write correctly and people who don't.

I can't get into a steam about people who don't. They're not ruining anything for me, and have just as much right as I do to express themselves.

IIRC, when I was at school in the 70s and early 80s our written work was corrected for grammar by irritated teachers. I can remember being pulled up for using slang in written work at primary school. We had a cover lesson once from an English teacher who was approaching retirement. She went off on one about our grammar and spent most of the lesson giving us a crash course.

I didn't know the difference between 'less' and 'fewer' until I was at university and my very pedantic friend was wincing at the signs at the tills in Sainsbury's - '7 items or less'.

I think the key difference is I wanted to learn. I was a sponge, I took everything in, went away and made sense of it.

Sounds similar to you, it was needed and welcomed.

So many people have to write, but are not naturally gifted, and are happy to be made to 'sound better.' The best way is to show people without judgment.

Completely different to correcting strangers on a public forum, who are posting about something completely different, only to be made to feel small for their lack of correct grammar.

Or, I sat and I stood.

‘I seen this today’ for example, drives me mad!

For many people, it won't ever matter.

But a few years ago I heard a young trainee teacher in charge of a class. She was a good teacher, and had good classroom control, but her grammar was shocking. 'Boys, when you was in the playground, you wasn't...'

I strongly suspect that won't do her career prospects much good in the longer term.

It was a joke. But the first person to correct it only corrected was to were not the first part and then other posters corrected them.

‘Pedants’ and ‘humour’ are not natural bedfellows! 😆

The problem is that with social media these mistakes are more visible. Other people reading them will assume they are correct and it, inevitably, gets worse.

And I missed that? Oh the irony of it!!😀

I wasnt sure if I could be asked to comment, but then I thought I may aswell, I am only led on my bed 🙄

I would counteract that with a recommendation to look up Elle Cordova's Errorist vs Grammarian videos.

Yes, but it won't get worse among people who know how to write properly. I just don't expect everyone to match those standards. They never have, and never will.

Or maybe our humour is just too clever for you

Nobody is trying to humiliate anyone. Surely those aspiring working class people you describe will be better off for knowing the correct grammar. It could be the difference between getting and not getting the job they want.

It won't make me start using bad grammar but I think it will influence people who are already making mistakes. It will seem to confirm their errors.

In the 70s and 80s grammar and spelling were still taught and still considered important.

At school we had endless grammar lessons, spelling tests, and ‘corrections’ where you had to correct misspelled words.

I recall Hilary Mantel saying that in the 50s apostrophes and spelling on shop notices were usually correct.

Which suggests this is a an education issue rather than a people issue.

I must admit I winced when I worked it out !

The one I hate at the moment, and it seems to be very prevalent on here, is the use of the word 'snobby' when the correct term is 'snobbish'. Snobby doesn't mean anything at all!

Deary me. 'Aspiring working class people.'

Maybe, just maybe, they might be lucky enough to have a good recruiting manager who has gone on a decent 'unconscious bias' course and actually taken note and thought...

Yes, they said 'should of' but I'm going to look past my own ugly inherent snobbery, because they seem like a really great person for the job, and that sort of small stuff really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

One of my pet peeves is people using 'may' instead of 'can' because they think it sounds more polite.

'Please may you pass me the salt?'

No! 'Could' is used instead of 'can' for politeness. 'Could you pass me...'
'May' is asking for permission to do something not asking someone to do something. 'May I have the salt'

The worst was a TA in a class of 5 year olds who always said it to the kids therefore reinforcing and passing on the error.

'Please may you all sit on the carpet.'

I had to really bite my tongue. People in education misusing language is the worst.