A weekly crash course in the essential and oft-misunderstood basics of spelling, grammar and general language. If you want to sound like you’ve got your sh*t together in work, on Whatsapp or wherever you communicate, this will help. Spread the word!
THIS WEEK
I’ve been uncharacteristically busy (I am often busy, but this past fortnight has been on another level, Dane Bowers could never, etc) so apols for the lack of grammatical reinforcement. I’m back with some box-fresh knowledge, settle in.
We’re delving into something I see disturbingly often, and that is:
‘I COULD OF’ or I SHOULDN’T OF’ or any variation on that, the most egregious of errors.
The phrases "should of" and "could of" are grammatical mistakes in English that physically pain me when I see written. In fairness to all who make the error, I understand. I don’t like it, but I get it. They likely get confused and conflated because of the way we pronounce "should've" and "could've," (which are contractions for "should have" and "could have," respectively).
When spoken quickly, "should've" and "could've" sound similar to "should of" and "could of," leading to confusion. So here’s the right way to say those things.