Curmudgeons' Corner

Guestmudgeon Daleen Coorts should of complained, and did

It really irritates me when people, instead of writing I should have...., write I should of....  My guess would be that this happens because the have is misheard as of when spoken fast and people without grammatical knowledge take it from there. 

It's the contracted form that throws folks off: should've.  Sounds a lot like should of.  Sometimes we suspect people know the difference, but in informal writing situations they write the phrase phonetically instead of correctly (even happens to us occasionally!). 

Have you heard or read similar or equally distressing usages?

Do tell us. 

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