It has been brought to my attention that there is a new trend in spelling. It affects at least three words, that I am aware of. It starts with the substitution of "of" for "have." Then, it progresses to shortening "have." For example, "kind of" has become "kind've." "Would have" became "would of," then moved on to being "would've." "Sort of" has even started showing up as "sort've."
Normally, though a deep part of me wants to fight against change in the English language, I try to be pretty flexible. This, however, is beyond my reach. What do you think?
Isn't "would have" the correct form, though? I would have gone some where..."would've" would work there. I agree about the other two. Are you seeing this in dialogue, or in exposition? I could ALMOST agree to the 've spelling of "sort of" and "kind of" in dialogue, though I think the more common way to do it is "sorta" and "kinda"...
ReplyDelete"Would have" is the correct form. It drives me crazy when people say "would of" instead of "would have". "Would of" doesn't make any sense. There's evolution in language, and then there's basic ignorance of what words actually mean. I haven't seen the other examples, though.
ReplyDeleteOops, seems I got mixed up! Thanks for the correction!
ReplyDeleteEric, yes, they are coming up in dialogue. I can see them catching on and being used in general writing, however, and that is quite unfortunate!