"We Could Of..."

[sandyRoe]

How long would people need to use this, rather than "could have", before it becomes acceptable?

[royfromaus]

Are Fred says it's acceptable now.

[Arrods]

I could of taken a guess, but I won't.

[Atheist]

Probably as long as 'I fell off of...' or 'haitch'.

[Arrods]

... or starting a sentence with 'So.

[Tilly2]

Could've isn't that far removed from could have, if you say it quickly.

[douglas9401]

Mostly used by greengrocer's innit.

[barry1010]

It will never be acceptable to me, it is meaningless.

[jennyjoan]

I always used "we could have" all the time.

[barry1010]

Tilly, 'could've' is a contraction of 'could have' and is correct. 'Could've' sounds like 'could of' but 'could of' is never correct in written form.

[Robinia]

'So fun...' instead of so much fun. Grrrrrr.......

[campbellking]

Well like, dunno really ...

[Tilly2]

I know. :-)

[Tilly2]

^ Barry

[mushroom25]

likewise the verb "to say" has been replaced in general usage by the compound verb "to be like".

as in "I was like", "he's like", etc

[fiction-factory]

Yeah, obvs a see it quite alot these day's from kids an from there parent's to

[douglas9401]

It brings me up short when it's written down.

[Ken4155]

Though Lancashire through and through, I abhor the usage of "He were agate." Meaning "he said." Took my army colleagues about 3 month of ribbing to stop me from saying it.

[fiction-factory]

Most communication is spoken though so the meaning is understood- 'should of' is heard as 'should've'. We see on here that some people always choose the wrong their/there/they're or mistake too and to, or misplace apostrophes, but when speaking it's not noticeable. One poster here always gets 'has' and 'as' the wrong way round but even that doesn't generally stop us understanding what is meant

[Tilly2]

I would've written that, if I could've been bothered, FF.

[Vagus]

Indeed. And I think it’s really unnecessary and unacceptable to pull anyone up, here, on their use of these words. It’s very rare a post is totally unreadable and makes no sense.
I know that’s not what you’re doing here Sandy.