Use of the word 'of' instead of 'have'

[Avatar]

Is there some sort of chav pride related to using 'of' instead of 'have'? Surely no one is that imbecilic that they actually confuse the two?

[mimififi]

I think there are actually people who don't know the difference between have and of. Also the difference between of and off and also the difference between what and that.

I used to teach these people and as far as I'm aware most left school before I could confidently say they had taken on board appropriate grammar useage. No wot I mean?

[CalamityK2]

Lots of people write, and say, "Should of", "would of", "could of" instead of "should have" etc.

EG - "If I'd of known Charmaine was goina wear her Burberry skirt, I wouldn't of worn mine. Innit."

[dan no1]

i remember when i was in primary school and one day the class came in from a break and my teacher wrote on the board 'i would of liked it if you came in and sat down quietly.' then she asked us all to look at it and say what we thought was wrong with the sentence. no one guessed the right answer - that the 'of' should have been 'have'. but i will always remember because of that lesson!

[dipee65]

It's because the semi-illiterate just write things on the basis of what it sounds like. Failing that, just guess.

[rojash]

Tonyted is partly right - it starts with the shortening of "could have" to "could've", and dipee65 supplies the rest of the answer. The sad thing is that it demonstrates that many people don't ever stop to consider the actual MEANING of what they are about to say!

[jake-the-peg]

Do you not understand what they mean?

Why does it offend you?

[DavidUK]

I have had terrible trouble convincing my children that "should of" is incorrect and makes them sound ignorant. "Of" is not a verb. I think I have finally got through to them now, though.

We had a young degree student at work, son of a GP, and he thought "should of" was correct grammar!

I even had an official letter from the Tax Office that included "should of".

[Champagne]

I of often swapped these two words in daily grammar. Have course, it can prove confusing to those who of never come across this before.

[stevie21]

The 2 are easily confused. "Should've" and "Should Of" sound exactly alike and for people who spend more time hearing words than reading them it's an easy mistake to make.

It is a pet hate of mine and it does my head in but I'd lay off people making the mistake. You sound like a right boring grammar snob.

[pagey]

It's because they hear the abbreviation 'should've' and hear "of" and not "'ve". They've probably never read or written it.

The same goes for brought and bought. I have a friend that says "I brought a chocolate bar", referring to the purchase and not the fact he took it with him.

Nothing annoys me more than 'H' pronounced 'haych' and not 'aych'. It's just incorrect. And so many people do it!

On a finer note, "James' car" implies there is more than one James. Its "James's", or even "Boss's", but too few people care about excercising good grammar.