I’m really not a “grammar nazi” by any means.

I’ll admit to making some common grammatical errors and other people’s mistakes usually don’t bother me. That being said, there is one mistake that really gets my blood boiling. I don’t know exactly why this particular mistake is so annoying, but I can’t stand seeing it.

Contrary to popular belief, “could of” is NOT the same thing as “could’ve” so please everyone, for the sake of my sanity, stop using them interchangeably.

I understand the confusion, they do sound very similar. But so do they’re, their, and there, and those are expected to be common knowledge. I’d hope that high school students would be able to read, “I could of done that” and think “hmmm…. something doesn’t seem quite right here.” It literally (and I use that in a literal sense) doesn’t make any sense at all.

“Could of”- really? DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT OF MEANS?

“Of (n.) expressing the relationship between a part and whole. The sleeve of his shirt.”  There you have it, straight from dictionary.com. So please, someone explain what ‘whole’ that ‘could’ is a part of here? ‘Done that’ is not a whole. ‘Of’ is not a verb. You cannot ‘of’ anything.

“Have (v.) used with a past participle to form the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect tenses, and the conditional mood. I have finished.” Okay, lots of big words, but I promise you can figure it out.

“Could’ve: Used to show there was possibility of something happening in the past, but it did not happen”

You could even use “couldn’t’ve” if you’re feeling really risky. Just please don’t say “couldn’t of.” That’s not a thing.

If this blog can raise awareness for this common mistake, and change the habit of even one person, I will consider it a success. But if not, I wouldn’t be opposed to a new plague.