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.

EBD was guilty of a great many foreign language errors.

She'd have been a terrible mistress at the CS.
🤣

I was wondering this. My DD went to school in the '90s and her spelling and grammar is perfectly fine
She was at an ordinary comprehensive in a working class area too. Not a posh private school. I don't think this is true at all. I think there were, as there have always been, some very bad schools and some much better ones.

It's not an abbreviation, it's a contraction.

When I say should've it sounds like should-uv. A definite "u" sound, not an "o" sound.
Of does have a "v" sound though so I can see how it does sound similar.

And the truly horrible "normalcy" ugh!

That does work, but it's language degrading, not evolving. When mistakes are normalised, nuances of meaning can be lost. Whole specific definitions have disappeared as words have been commandeered for incorrect usage.

Exactly. Words such as literally, disinterested, infer, fulsome, whom...

Not to mention "me"!!!!

I went to school in the 90s/00s. There absolutely wasn't sufficient grammar education. My grammar and punctuation was passable when I left school because I was a reader. However, no-one had ever taught me the purpose of a semicolon, what a subordinate clause is or how to identify the subjunctive form. I first learnt about the present continuous tense when I was in a German lesson; the same was true for most of the class. Many of my university essays had comments such as "your grammar was odd here" or "avoid comma splicing." I was a "top set" student and picked most things up, but you can't know what you were never taught.

Some schools may have decided to teach grammar in addition to the curriculum. Mine did not but was rated outstanding by Ofsted; clearly, grammar and punctuation weren't an issue.

We now teach all of the above in primary schools. There is then no grammar on the secondary curriculum. It's still poor and no wonder that students leave without understanding the nuances of grammar and punctuation.

This was my point and I got shot down for it and had a word corrected. It really is pathetic on a site that uses the first letter of each word IE DC etc rather than typing the full word.

I never said wars aren't something to get worked up about. I was just giving an example. Obviously the wars going in right now accross the world are something to get worked up over. But choice of words when commencing on Mumsnet is not something to get worked up over.

Even when your putting that person down and making them feel like shit? It's bullying you don't know what that person's mental health is like. That stick you beat them with might just be the trigger to make them feel even more worthless than they already feel.

*you’re

I was replying to your point that we should worry about plastic pollution instead of incorrect language - we can worry about both.

“Give it up”

I suggest you take your own advice and don’t continue to post on this thread as you’re getting wound up when people don’t agree with you.

I didn't say declarative questions are not valid.

The declarative question you just used makes sense, because it's natural you would be uncertain about what I'm saying and you may want clarification.

I am saying the following statement does not work as a declarative question:

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

For this to be a declarative question, that would mean she's unsure as to whether or not she can work out another way to pronounce it. Which makes no sense, because she would know the answer to that.

Which is literally what I explained in my last comment...

Is it either “ten out of ten”, or “often”

Narcissist.

The question made perfect sense.

If you suspect it of being disingenuous, then that's a separate issue.

So did I. I consider myself to use really good grammar and spelling. However whereas I know what tense to use, how to use a colon, semi colon, dash and hyphen (and when) I couldn't tell you what the pluperfect or subjunctive actually is.

Seen on the Daily Mail today.

Dame Donna Langley, who grew up on the Isle of Wight, is the first British woman to run a major Hollywood studio and has been credited with championing films including Straight Outta Compton, Bridesmaids, Get Out, The Holdovers, and Bafta best film winner Oppenheimer.

She was sat next to Kate [Middleton] during the ceremony, and got a standing ovation as she went on to stage to receive her award.

Who plonked Donna next to Kate?

That might accurate. There will have been a strict seating chart so she would have been sat there by the organiser.

Oftentimes

It looks to me like a statement spoken in rising speech, expressed in writing. The question mark is intended to signify tone rather than interrogation. Not sure that's a thing (yet)?

👍🏽

You wouldn't say that statement with a rising tone if you said it out loud. That's because it's not a question.