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 blame some teachers. I actually work with one (or maybe more) who always writes of instead of have or ‘ve and it drives me insane! How can she teach
spelling and grammar not knowing this?! Please don’t blame me, I know the difference!

We gifted people all know that a gift is only ever given.

Wrong.

We do.

Often?
Of-ten

I go through people's PowerPoints and correct grammar and spellings. One colleague has actually thanked me and now sends them to me first.

Nothing wrong with it. It’s an established idiomatic construction.

Oftentimes

It's perfectly okay to start a sentence with 'and'

Oftentimes? (Sorry if someone else has got this, I've not read beyond this comment yet!)

Well that's got me totally scrambled. Eggscellent!👌😍

I swear to God, next time I'm on a call with someone who insists on engaging in all the pompous and idiotic "myself"ing and "yourself"ing, I won't be able to resist the temptation: "OK, just to confirm - yourself will send it to myself today and myself will be hearing from yourself next week. Got it."😁

That's a pseudo-rule from the Victorian era, that is rejected by most authorities as a pointless constraint on the natural expressiveness of the English language.

It's perfectly acceptable to start a sentence with a conjunction, reflecting the way the language has been used for a very long time.

😂
I hate that! "I'm going to give a copy to yourself" just....no.

The Head in my children’s old school was barely literate. She could use up an entire year’s budget of exclamation points in one letter home, and only ever used Comic Sans.

On more than one occasion I corrected a letter from the Head in red pen, but sadly never had a child willing to hand it back to her.

I'll try to explain why it bothers me more than is good for me.

When I see the same, very simple errors cropping up frequently it makes me feel uncomfortable in an almost physical way. It feels like everything is spiralling out of control. It's as though I have word OCD. I'm not diagnosed with any spectrum disorders but there are certain textures of plastic that send me into conniptions that can last for hours and I've got misophonia too. I have to remove myself from situations sometimes.

I don't speak for others though - that's just how I feel.

I'd love to go through every thread with a red pen, but I know it's a lost cause and very unpopular.

The thing is, it's not being petty or smug, or an exercise in oneupmanship. It's actually really painful to see these things if you care about them. That might sound pretentious but I used to be an editor and I love the English language and I love to see it used well. Imagine hearing a violin played so badly that it hurts your ears – it's like that.

And so say all of us!

Of course. As it is for people to understand some have difficulties, and will be put off posting because they’re being ridiculed and put down. It’s nasty and it’s shitty.

AND what should you then end it with…?

Shame! She needed to know. The problem was almost certainly that staff didn't want to correct her. They should have.
I remember a HT having to send our students home when part of a ceiling collapsed.
His letter began "All the students are being sent home today because of a freak".

...to boldly go.

Although I was less than precise; PEMDAS is indeed a true acronym, as it is pronounceable as a word. My example should have been HMRC, DVLA, MI5 or similar.

Aaaarghh !! 🤪 Noooo ! I used to work with a woman who thought things were more better !

I'm sure you know that this board would be more suited @BrickBiscuit