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.

'of' is often pronounced with a v sound.

You're just too good to be true,
Can't keep my eyes off of you
Aaaargh!

Isn't 'of' always pronounced with a v sound or it would be 'off'?

They sound exactly alike to me

Yes it would be 'off'

Well on reflection, not exactly alike, but very very close

Yep, they do to me too, I'm not sure how some are pronouncing 'of' on this thread though.

As I already explained, if they sound exactly alike, then that's because you're incorrectly pronouncing "should've" as "should of."

I can't work out any other way to pronounce it though?

I saw a video by a man with a ghastly white tongue who was teaching English online. He outlined three ways for learners to sound more like a native speaker. First was use of the word 'quite'. Say, 'the weather was quite warm', 'we got on quite well', and the second was to say 'I was stood at the bus stop', or 'We were sat on the grass'. Alas I can't remember the third.

People I have corrected (non-native English speakers) have been really pleased to find out how easy it is to know when to use 'my husband and I' or 'me and my husband.'

Can I add 'on accident' to the list of horrors?

Saying you were stood at the bus stop or sat on the grass means you were forcibly put there though!

Yes it does. But many English speakers do use this way of speaking and remember, the lesson was about how to sound more like a native speaker.

Here are another two. Grow Up.

Well in that case so does the OP. Nobody knows what other people’s struggles are. It’s called bullying to nit pick a persons weakness.

Hubby and I. “Myself” is used like this (incorrectly) all the time.

Off isn’t!

I didn't say 'off' was?

And it's bullying by exclusion to suggest that people who might be insecure about their written English should be corrected and educated as a matter of policy on a forum where they should feel safe in asking for support.

It is never correct to say “me and my husband”.

You should never put yourself before another person. That’s just plain good manners.

So if you’re the object of the sentence, then eg “X gave or said something to my husband and [to] me.”

If you’re the subject, then “my husband and I went…”

Along with something being 'addicting'.

My favourite from MN this week has been 'toot sweet', which I actually found rather endearing.

That's right! Only recently I've been hearing this more. No idea why people have started saying it..Just come out of nowhere.

I think it's probably as a counterpart to 'on purpose'.

That's not a question, so you should not have ended that sentence with a question mark.

That can be added to the list of grammatical annoyances.