60-second fix: should have or should of?

This is a nice, easy one to answer. No sitting on the fence, no ‘it’s down to personal preference’.

Here goes:

Should have, would have, could have – correct
Should of, would of, could of – incorrect

The error is widespread and dates back nearly 200 years. The cause? Simply that should’ve sounds identical to should of in a lot of accents. In fact, many of us hardly voice the second word at all, so it’s little wonder that we’re not quite sure how to write it.

The of version is now such a well-known error that some authors of fiction (rather snobbily) use it in dialogue to indicate a character’s lack of education. There are examples in this post on Stan Carey’s blog.

‘Shoulda woulda coulda are the last words of a fool’, sang Beverley Knight. We’re pretty sure she was talking about grammar.

To avoid being that fool, remember: you just have to use have.

More 60-second fixes:

• Spaces and units
• Affect and effect
• Bear and bare
• Compare to and compare with
• Complimentary and complementary
• Different from/to/than
• Judgement or judgment
• Lead and led
• Palate, palette and pallet
• Rein and reign
• Spelt/spelled, learnt/learned and dreamt/dreamed
• Stationary and stationery
• Substitute for/with
• 60-second quiz

Author: Cathy Dann

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Cathy is a certified word and editing expert, having worked as a sub-editor, editor and copywriter at, to name a few, the Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Which? and The Grocer.