ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 9/9/2010
Posts: 9,528
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FOREWORD: Yes. I am aware the title is "wrong." The art of irony is not lost.
This gif is not to be taken seriously.
As most of you know, the grammar and spelling on our lovely site here isn't always the best. This thread is a place for us to share either tips or examples of common grammatical and spelling errors so we can (hopefully) start to improve ours. Let's get started!
DISCLAIMER: The point of this thread is NOT to criticize others (native speakers or not). I have bolded the purpose above, just in case it wasn't clear the first time. It doesn't matter if English is your native language or not. Just as with anyone learning any language, there's ALWAYS room for improvement. If you don't want to improve, you don't have to. However, there are some people that would genuinely like to. This thread is for them.
The creation of this thread was spurred by the common misusage of the word "of" in place of "have" on this very site.
Example: "Which song should OF been a single?"
The reason why this is so common is because when we speak we pronounce the word "have" as "of" when it follows words like should, could, would, etc. It's an easy mistake to make, but also an easy one to fix.
The correct written form is: "Which song should HAVE been a single?"
OR
"Which song should 'VE been a single?"
(where the 've = a contraction of the word "have")
The word "of" refers to a relationship between a part and a whole, so if you write the word "of" you should be referring to something like: A number of songs (with the "whole" being the many songs out there in the world).
Nobody's grammar is perfect (native speaker or not), and this isn't meant to make anyone feel stupid. If you'd like to improve your grammar, however, this thread might be a good place to start.
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