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 see where you're coming from now.

You write the way you talk, which is fine by me. It's absolutely clear what you mean, and it's a natural way to express yourself.

A pedant would insist on a comma and an ellipsis, like this:
I can't work out any other way to pronounce it, though...?
– but who cares, really?! It's not as though you're publishing a specialist paper aimed at academic readers. We're just here on MN, where everyone is friendly and non-judgemental... 🤔🤣

Should of and should've sound the same in speech because they end in the same consonant sound (v), and we use the unstressed schwa or "lazy" vowel sound before that. See:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/schwa

"Lazy" is not a criticism or a moral judgement here. It is about the relaxed shape of mouth, lips and tongue for an unstressed vowel.

This is why we don't tend to see of replacing have in other circumstances - even if you don't pronounce the h, I 'ave it or I 'ave to stress the "ave" and give a different vowel sound from what we hear in "of".

When you start to think about the schwa and listen out for it, you realize we use it all the time.

It's something I've heard small children say quite often. I wouldn't expect an adult to say it.

You are right and wrong there, apparently. Research suggests that small children (in America) started to prefer "on accident" in the 1990s, and stuck with it as they grew up.

British children are presumably picking it up on YouTube and from American media generally.

Maybe I will de-age myself by adopting it in online communications myself.

www.quickanddirtytips.com/qdtarchive/on-accident-versus-by-accident/

I’m sad that the useful phrase “It is impossible to overstate the importance of this” has recently been completely mangled by reporters, including some on the BBC, and is now being delivered as “It is impossible to understate the importance of this”.

I find "leccy" works equally well as a noun or adjective.

Where, were, we’re.
There, their, they’re.
Been and being.
Should of.
Board > bored.

They give me the absolute rage. I am the grammar police and do not even apologise for it 😤

A bank with a name that until recently began with V? I can assure you that when I finally received a letter of apology from them for mangling my accounts I was not remotely pleased to find it full of admissions that they “should’ve” done this and “could’ve” done that and “would’ve” done the other. Not grammatically incorrect, but horribly informal in the context of an abject apology and a formal offer of compensation.

That needs done.
I'm going shops.
Just a couple more for you!

Can we try to eradicate "alot" while we're at it? It's a plague. Some people have even started with "abit" now. Where does it even come from? What's the logic?

"Free reign" is also everywhere on MN...

Or "to underestimate". It is impossible to underestimate the scale of this problem..

Humans are really bad at parsing double negatives, which isn't quite what we have here but is a related problem I think

Boarders/borders - often confused on MN.

See also "on an evening" and "on a weekend".

The number of times I hear or read, "I've went...", "She's came...", "They've spoke..." etc. I wonder why their teachers never corrected them at school? How can they go all these years convinced that they're speaking correctly?

@Beachtastic You write the way you talk, which is fine by me.

But it's not writing the way we talk.

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

A question mark implies a rising tone at the end of the sentence, which is how questions are asked in English.

However, if you were to say this sentence aloud, you would not use a rising tone. That's because it's not a question.

So if you would not say the sentence aloud with a rising tone, why put a question mark at the end?

Old fashioned tbh.

If I see someone attack a poster's SPAG with no reference to what they're seeking support with I report it. I shall continue to do so.

That's a teacher's job, but nobody on here has been appointed to do that job, except by themself.

What's old fashioned? Making sense?

There was a time MN would delete those sort of snidey posts.Lets hope they still would.

Every single one I've reported has been promptly removed. There was one only this morning.

I beg you, revive your ire concerning disinterested & uninterested. It truly matters, in law & in politics even if nowhere else. To lose the concept of disinterest is to lose a cornerstone of civilisation.

Oh yes, I saw one today too. I should have reported it. I will from now on. Especially as this OP has called for more people to correct peoples SPAG errors on threads.