I'm not an aggressive enforcer of language by any means. While I hate poor grammar an punctuation, I accept that any living language will naturally change over time as new words are added, old words fall out of common use and meanings change.
That said, certain usages are just plain wrong, no matter how common they are. Most irritating is the use of "should of" instead of "should have". I understand that the confusion comes from shortening "should have" to "should've", which in turns sounds like "should of". But it's wrong. It's obviously wrong. "Should of" does not make grammatical sense!
What's worse is that people are now clearly enunciating "should of" when they speak, and I have read several letters from supposedly-professional firms containing this abomination.
Is there anything that can be done? Is it petty to correct people? Should I just continue to hold my tongue?
All I can say for certain is that anyone misusing language in this way should of paid more attention at school.
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