[IGNORE] Needless grammatical rant.

[dark_dragon]

hum-hum.

*coughs*

*Dons Grammar Nazi outfit*

My dearest ladies and gentlemen, Please use 'Could have', 'Should have' and 'Must have' instead of 'Could of', 'Should of' and 'Must of'.

If necessary, use the contracted form of have: "could've".

'Of' is a preposition. More correctly, it is an adposition. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition. If used instead of a verb, the created sentence is grammatically incorrect.

Indeed, when enunciated the two spellings are not homophones.

'Of' is pronounced /ɒv/ or /ʌv/, while 'Have' is pronounced /hæv/, /(h)əv/, or /hæf/.

Thank you for listening to this public service announcement.

*takes off Grammar Nazi outfit*

Dark_dragon now apologises profusely.

[Scrasamax]

Where is this transgression? If I did it I must correct it promptly.

[valadaar]

Agreed in principle where it is the authors words, but I think 'could of' is fine in dialog.

[Chaosmark]

The distinction is hard to make in a verbal context, because so often we don't fully enunciate our words and just rely on our listeners to understand what is said, so "could've" is almost exactly the same as "could of". Which I believe is where the problem arises, especially in a society where true literacy is nearly gone, and butchering grammar is perfectly acceptable, "because only rich snobs care about such nonsense."

[dark_dragon]

In speech, it really depends on which dialect of English you use.

Honestly, I don't think I mind it in speech. Besides, there are so many different pronunciations that it doesn't matter. In the very city in which I live, people from different suburbs have starkly different accents!

When written, however, it feels like a segfault. See www.xkcd.com/371/

Unless purposefully used to illustrate a character's dialect (in which case anything goes), it really throws me off. (And I have English as second language) What makes it even worse is that only English-as-first writers seem to make the mistake.

especially in a society where true literacy is nearly gone, and butchering grammar is perfectly acceptable, "because only rich snobs care about such nonsense."

*Outfits comes back on*

Well, then, let us fight the holy crusade!