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.

They might be, if they were corrected OFTEN enough.

No.

Got it! Quicker than I got the solution to my own OP ...

Goes with "Ladsa" (6,5)?
I love "Frasier" and cryptic crosswords.

Yes! I don't know when, why or how this happened. The real ick is 'would of went' and I see this all the time. I want to shout out when reading these misuses of basic grammar, like so many other constructions.

Got it! I hope it's massive.

It's defiantly annoying. Or maybe the posters are just being mischievous...

That made me laugh ...

It's the loose instead of lose that really gets on my wick😡

Yes, it really matters.

Not more than all the other stuff, but it still matters.

It is another small contribution to the gradual erosion of civilisation, by the relentless battering tide that is social media.

I don't think knowing English grammar is privileged (assuming that you had a UK education and you have no disabilities). It's part of the English curriculum

And the misuse of 'of' instead of 'have' is nothing to do with text talk. It's due to lack of reading. Because if you only hear 'should've' or 'could've', it's easy to understand where the mistake comes from.

I think it has something to do with the fact that people seem to (erroneously) remember from school that it's ALWAYS 'Fred and I' even when the 'I' is the object and should be 'me'.
I wonder if the misuse of reflexive pronouns partially stems from confusion surrounding this too. It's less confusing to say: 'Myself and Bob went to the park' or 'Bill went to the park with Bob and myself'. I also get the impression that some users get the impression that it sounds more formal to opt for a reflexive pronoun.

Who is mocking them? Telling someone things are incorrect can be a way of helping them to improve their English to become better communicators. Lots of people with poor English want to improve.

"Do you think I should of brought that present"
"I think you should have bought that present" - that's how you correct kindly.

I can sigh at the state of people's communication and complain or joke on a thread without mocking someone.

Exactly

No, you could have a point there. I think the Traitors contestants (UK, not Ireland!) who indulge in all the "yourself"ing have actually drawn attention to the issue, thus doing a huge service to the English language and the standard of grammar in this country. But it's possible that my own optimism is also misplaced.

🤣😂🤣

‘I’m struggling to loose weight.’

’Have you tried cutting the ropes holding it?’

From my perspective there isn’t an acceptable way. My school (primary and secondary) was very deficient regarding teaching or correcting spelling and grammar. I haven’t been able to catch up properly. I’m very careful at work. I’m not on MN

I just feel rubbish if I am corrected. It doesn’t sink in to change my usage

Well, you are definitely being annoying!

Massive text walls without paragraphs drive me crackers. When I see an OP like that, I don't even start reading.

Possibly my brain is decaying with age, but I just can't take it in.

You can care about Epstein's victims and grammar. You don't have to choose.

It's a bête noire of mine, but I wouldn't dream of correcting someone (unless I happened to be their teacher).

I supposed that it could be argued that it was good enough for Steinbeck, so... (Yes, I know: he only used it in direct speech.)

'Of's and 'sat's should be taken out and despatched without mercy for crimes against grammar.

But this is language degrading, not evolving. Other errors discussed recently are 'factoid' being mistaken to mean a true statement and 'acronym' used for PEMDAS (for example). This means the language no longer has unique words to mean 'something untrue but accepted through repetition' or 'an abbreviation that can be pronounced as a word'.

😂😂😂