Should of, would of, could of

“I should of gone to the meet up yesterday”

“I would of got an A if I studied harder”

“I shouldn’t of tried to cook the eggs in the microwave”

‘Should of’ is not a real phrase. Even as I write this, my notes app is underlining the word ‘of’ in red.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen this phrase being used, and it drives me crazy for some bizarre reason.

The tipping point for me was during my A-levels. I had received an email from my head of year, and he used the phrase in the first sentence of his email. I try my best, but every time I hear the phrase I tend to get mildly annoyed.

The confusion comes from the phrase we use when we’re speaking, which is ‘should’ve’.

‘Should’ve’ is short for should have. It implies that we regret our actions and wish we could change them. “I should have bought more toilet paper”. Or “I should have used the phrase should’ve instead of should of”.

When we’re speaking, ‘should’ve’ sounds a lot like ‘should of’, so it makes almost no difference if you use ‘of’ or ‘ve’.

But it does become a problem when we’re writing.

The fact that I see it so often in writing makes me a little worried. A small mistake in grammar like this could potentially cost you a job offer, if the hiring manager picks up the mistake. Well if you were writing to a hiring manager I think they’d also expect less abbreviations in writing, but who am I to judge.

It would make sense if the phrase ‘should of’ was a shortcut in writing, but it uses more characters and even a space in between the words. On top of that, online keyboards do not recognise the phrase, so it won’t autocorrect, and it will also highlight the word in red as grammatically incorrect.

If you think I’m being crazy, and believe that nobody uses this phrase, just do a quick google search of ‘should of’. You’ll quickly see how many grammar and Q&A sites there are trying to answer this question.

And if you’re reading this and you routinely use the phrase 'should of’, this is not an attack, I merely want to help you avoid grammatical mistakes in your writing. Your welcome (pun intended).

Not a very pressing topic issue today, but I wanted to put it out there nonetheless. Carry on with your day, I’ll see you here again tomorrow.