Would of OR Would have?

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I’m really curious how social media and texting affect grammar. I ASSUME that texting and facebooking and twitter have a negative influence on grammar. But you know what they say when a person ASSUMES something… It could be that many people have always had terrible grammar and all these forms of communication make the mistakes that much more noticeable to people who care.

I have an MA in English Linguistics and I conducted a unique study for my thesis to learn how sociolinguistics impacts second language learning. Specifically, I looked at sexist language and found that it can change how language learners may behave. Language is CRAZY powerful.

If you don’t know, sociolinguistics is, “the study of language and linguistic behavior as influenced by social and cultural factors.” It fascinates me! In an ideal world, I would return to school and earn my PhD and I might just focus on social media. Social media and texting were not really around when I earned my MA in 2002. But, I know, linguists at universities are studying this right now. I would love to, too!

  Proper grammar for would of or would have
Anyway, here’s another common grammar error that I see all the time, especially on Facebook:
writing WOULD OF (SHOULD OF or COULD OF)  instead of WOULD HAVE (SHOULD HAVE or COULD HAVE).

When we speak, it sometimes sounds like we say WOULD OF because of the way we slur our words together. However, it’s not correct in WRITTEN English.Always write WOULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE, and COULD HAVE. ALWAYS. ALWAYS. ALWAYS. No exceptions! It’s just good (and correct) grammar.

And that’s your 5 Minute Grammar Lesson for the week! 🙂

About Michelle Marine

Michelle Marine is the author of How to Raise Chickens for Meat, a long-time green-living enthusiast, and rural Iowa mom of four. She empowers families to grow and eat seasonal, local foods; to reduce their ecological footprint; and to come together through impactful travel.

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3 Comments

  1. My personal pet peeve is "supposively". I had a job for a few years where I did some minor editing, and that was everywhere – before texting!

  2. The correct contraction is “would’ve”, thus it sounds like “would of.” My pet peeve is people using “nauseous” when they mean “nauseated.” Nauseous means you make others nauseated.