this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Or "How it feels"

I feel like there's been a gradual increase in people saying things like this ("would of" instead of "would've", "apart" instead of "a part", etc)

[–] glorious_albus 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I guess it's just the increase in the ease of availability of internet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That and the unfortunate increasing failure of the education system.

[–] optissima 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Also the fact that language is not set in stone and continues to evolve....

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I'm tired of seeing that argument to validate incorrect usage of words that already exist. Words mean things. People using a language incorrectly don't get to just decide that the words they're using mean something else now because that's how they meant it. That's not "growing and evolving", it's just using the language incorrectly and being too stubborn to admit a fault in themself and instead try to change the language to fit their lack of education about the language and its usage.

The words "could", "should", or "would" followed by the word "of" is completely nonsensical and meaningless. It is a misunderstanding/misinterpretation of "could've", "would've", or "should've" being heard audibly because they sound similar. "Apart" literally means the opposite of "a part", and, again, comes from a misunderstanding from hearing the word spoken rather than seeing it written down because it sounds the same.

A perfect example of language evolving is the word "another". It literally is the words "an" and "other" pushed together to form a single word and has the exact same meaning as that. Another example is the word "bosun". It literally means "boatswain", and comes from the word being shortened down in spoken communication, but is a completely made up word and has no prior meaning.

Do not confuse incorrect usage of the language as growth and change.

I'm sorry for coming off as an ass, I literally did not sleep last night and I'm very tired.