I can’t remember if I’ve kvetched about this before, but even if I have, it bears repeating.
I am seeing far too many blog posts, Tweets, Facebook status updates, and more that include some variation of this:
“I would of gone for a run this morning but I was too tired and slept in.”
“I should of studied harder in school.”
“I could of been a contender.”
[Imagine that I'm holding my head in my hands and screaming.]
NO. NO. NO. NO. NO.
In every single one of these cases, the correct thing would be either would have, should have, could have or would’ve, should’ve, could’ve.
I can’t even believe I have to cover this. *sigh*
This one drives me truly bonkers. I just finished reading a book where some of the characters spoke this way, and I’m hoping it was intentional . . . . the characters weren’t well educated. I worry, though, that some people might not even notice it was incorrect!
Did you see my facebook status yesterday? One of the teenagers we took to the Jamboree this summer wrote a HUGE facebook post using could of all the way through. I ALMOST posted on his wall but then took the passive aggressive way out instead! It makes me scream…
NUMBER. ONE. PET. PEEVE. EVVVVVEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR.
OK, have you been spying on me??? As I was drafting my blog post this morning I said “could’ve” in my head and my fingers heard “could of”, so that’s what they typed. Luckily, my brain caught it in half a second and my fingers obligingly fixed it immediately.
This one drives me crazy, too, but I can’t say I’m immune. I can say I don’t think I’ve ever published a post with that error in it (yet).