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.

You are defiantly correct.

I like "try and". I have the impression it's even more popular in Ireland, where I'm from. It's been around since the 1600s and used by Dryden, Thackeray, Elliot, Hemingway and others. It's not an error, even if some people don't like it.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/were-going-to-explain-the-deal-with-try-and-and-try-to

DuchessofStaffordshire

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 blame the late Queen.
Or, at least, I blame people impersonating her and saying "May husband and Ay..." in an effort to sound posh or, more commonly, to mock what they think is a posh accent.
They're also the sort of people who end sentences with "dontcha know" for the same reason.

Oh my god. The number of people trying to loose weight!

My pet hate is incorrect use of apostrophes.

Because it jars. It's the reading-in-your-head equivalent of somebody screeching occasional words in their otherwise normal speech. It feels uncomfortable, slows me down as I automatically re-read that part to check the meaning, and it can make me lose the train of what I'm reading.

We've all had to learn to overlook common errors, but they still jar and are still uncomfortable.

‘And I….’ for flipping everything winds me up.

I’m not even sure Peaseblossom and Mustardseed had it right though so maybe this is an older problem than we think.

DD(6) has the line "We can try and help" for her class assembly. Do I make her learn this or change it to "try to help" and potentially annoy her teacher 😫I don't think I can ignore it as it annoys me so much!

My pet hate is a colleague who keeps saying, "I've sent it yourself..". No. So many people don't know how to use myself/yourself

Or loosing it at their kids😂

"he would of of" was on a thread here recently

@BrickBiscuit The particularly annoying thing about this is that "should of" and "should've" sound nothing alike. Anyone who thinks they sound the same is a bit silly.

Unconventional but not wrong at all

Quite like listening to one of Trump's speeches, actually.

Myself and my partner would of agreed with you and hubster.

My favourite is: “sat here in tears”.

There was something earlier today with rather an excess of "off ofs".

I saw 'dosent' several times on here yesterday.

The strange thing about "myself" and "yourself" though is that they have the odd effect of softening language. So people sending e-mails often opt to use these incorrectly because they soften the tone.

Note that "I've sent that to yourself" sounds softer than "I've sent that to you."

It’s a mute point!

Ignore it! It's an internet message board not an exam paper. I am a terrible speller, always have been, believe me we don't do it to piss people off! Plenty of people have dyslexia too. I expect there are people who just text type as well because it's too long winded to type everything out. I find it rather petty when people point out bad spelling, I'm sure there are things you are bad at too.

No leave it, as others have said it is correct and this conjunction has been in use since the 13th century.

It can do, depending on who is sending the message. Often it sounds pompous or ridiculous.

"It's a moo point. Like a cow's opinion..."

(That quote may not be precisely correct)

This. English isn't phonetic. If you're writing or typing, you have to use the right words. Otherwise, who our way spoused two no watt their sane?

And it's not even just that people are spelling it wrong - I often hear people say "would of" quite distinctly. They think "of" is the right word in this context. It's their native language, and they don't seem to be aware of the meaning of the simplest of words.

’Bigly’

🤣