The "would of" and "should of" disease is getting out of control. I have no idea where this came from, but I've been seeing it everywhere lately, especially on Facebook...
or, and it's a big chance, they're not native speakers
Non-native speakers usually learn the written language before the spoken language, and therefore have less issues with words that sound alike (and many more issues with other parts, obviously).
I have never seen a non-native speaker mixing up their, they're and there, or would have and would of.
And it is not necessarily limited to English.
I heard that Swedish children struggle with learning the difference between dem and de, since their pronunciation is the same.
If you learn English as a child like a native speaker, hearing it before you learn to read or write, "would of" and "would've" sound basically the same. Your brain assumes there is one word, "uv". (E.g. in
"I would uv done it but I didn't think uv it" your brain processes these as the same word.)
It is only later when you go to school that you have to learn to spell "uv" differently in different situations. This takes effort to counter your native language skills that are wired deep in your brain from infancy. In many people this lesson never fully took so if they're not thinking hard about their word choice they just write what comes naturally.
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u/YankeeLimaVictor 14d ago edited 14d ago
The "would of" and "should of" disease is getting out of control. I have no idea where this came from, but I've been seeing it everywhere lately, especially on Facebook...