From: The Land of one Headlight on. Insane since: May 2001
posted 10-11-2006 08:44
I've seen this used here in the Asylum.... on other forums and I've just now run across it in yet another forum.
I've seen it often enought now I'm ready admit I must have missed that day in grade one when the teacher said something like: 'of' is the same as 'have.'
'....the top dog, he could of simply done what he's done ......'
Could've would've should've might've. (add to it)
I willing accept that quickly said "could've" SOUNDS like 'could of'' but when your first language is english I really don't get it.
When I've encoutnered '...she could of...' and similar, english (I'm pretty confident) is almost certainly the writer's first language.... and then the writer repeatedly uses 'of' instead OF "have" I must reluctantly conclude the writer believes 'could of' is the same as 'could have.'
We're not talking ... I seen him . How close was you. Were tallking.
We're not talking about 'tense' and all that sort OF stuff. Or are we?
Is this evolution of the language?
Please tell me OF & HAVE is not the same as; regardless and irregardless?
A bit of help please before I go outside and fall on my sword.
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The goal in Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "holy moly what a ride!"
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England Insane since: May 2003
posted 10-11-2006 10:29
No: whilst 'regardless' and 'irregardless' mean the same thing, 'of' and 'have' most certainly do not! Whilst it does arise from the similarity in sound between 'could've' and 'could of', this is purely accidental; saying 'could of' is still completely incorrect. As to evolution...I had this thought a while ago, but decided that ignorant people shouldn't decide the future of our language :P
In much the same way, I know that the subjunctive ('if I WERE to so-and-so....') is very rarely used these days, but it does make me take notice when someone does use it correctly, it's a much more elegant construction than using the indicative.
My personal peeve? Probably the incorrect usage of 'less' and 'fewer'. Oh, and also the incorrect use of apostrophes - that can be really annoying!
Pronounciation is what gets up my nose, out in the Big World Place. Not the kind of differning pronounciation you get due to accents and regionalities, and such-forth, but the simple, lazy mispronounciations. Like 'Satday' instead of 'Saturday'. Or 'aks' instead of 'ask'. Diction, people, diction! Start and finish every word that you say!
You're correct. 'Of' and 'have' don't mean the same thing. In fact if you read the sentence syntactically and carefully, 'She could of ....' makes no sense. However, if you think about what the other person must have been 'hearing' in their head when they wrote the sentence, you can figure out that they meant 'She could've ....'
I find it tiring to continually have to try to decrypt what someone else meant when they misspell or mis-type in messages or posts. It's almost like becoming a code breaker sometimes to have to think, 'Well the sentence says 'blah', but that is the opposite meaning of the thought being expressed in the rest of the paragraph so if they typed 'j' instead of 'k' in that word, because those two letters are next to each other on the keyboard, then ran the message through the spell checker and it changed the word to ....' After a while, I just give up and decide what they had to say wasn't that important.
It would be nice if everyone spell checked and proof read their writing so they are sure they are saying what they meant to say.
PS: wrayal: 'regardless' and 'irregardless' don't mean the same thing, since "irregardless" is not a word. "Irregardless" is an attempt to say either 'regardless' or 'irrespective'. I think that is what NoJive was referring to in his post. It is one of those things people, who should know better, say and make themselves look un-educated.
Oh, now you're going to get me started. But I'll stop at just one: "I could care less."
If one could care less, that means that he cares to some degree higher than zero -- exactly the opposite of what one means when saying this. The correct phrase is "I couldn't care less." In other words, you care in absolutely no way whatsoever. Your level of caring is zero. It is impossible for you to care any less than you do.
And I'm going to shoot someone next time I see a girl refer to herself as a "chic." It's "chick." "Chic" is pronounced sheek and it means "stylish."
OK, that was two.
Edit:
OK, three. I forgot the one that really gets on my nerves: using "however" as a conjunction. Explanation here.
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The goal in Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "holy moly what a ride!"
they're their Jamie, irregardless of you're feelings on the subject you could of allowed these good folks there room to vent, do like me and avoid it, I could care less
They could, of course, meant "could have;" however, I don't think they would have known what you were talking about, were you to bring it up with them, regardless of English being their first language or not, since they probably couldn't care less about proper grammar and the usages thereof.
... So, how many grammatical errors in that bit?
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Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.
posted 10-11-2006 08:44
