Common mistakes

First of the common mistakes is the use of the word 'of' instead of 'have'.
i.e. 'Would of' instead of 'would have'. 'Should of' instead of 'Should have'
This comes about, I think, because of how people generally speak the words.
Therefore 'Would have' is pronounced 'Would've'.
It is easy to see how 'would've' would change to 'would of'.

I could spoke proper England when I was a children.

yew til om adne

David Aiketgate wrote: yew til om adne

That took me a while to work out :lol:

we also have one do you say warrel do or darrel do

I'm thinking the 'spelling police', although narrowing their scope with reference to 'spelling' actually mean to correct all types of written communication to the proper English. Dialect is not covered by this as it is written only in the phonetic. I may be wrong.

I - as a non native speaker - am surprised how often one can see the wrong use of THEIR, THEY'RE and THERE even in ads or newspaper articles. ITS and IT'S seems to be a challenge too.

But don't worry, the Germans don't do any better in this discipline. It's a distressing trend we can see over the last years, apparently across several countries and languages.

Ah yes. Their. They're. There.
They're taking their tools over there.
They're = A contraction of 'They are'.
There = Denotes a place.
Their = Belonging to them.

Similarly. Your. You're.
You're taking your tools.
You're = A contraction of 'You are'.
Your = Belonging to you.

Its. It's.
It's time you put the tool back in its place.
It's = A contraction of 'It is'.
Its = Belonging to it

Spelling Police wrote: Ah yes. Their. They're. There.
They're taking their tools over there.
They're = A contraction of 'They are'.
There = Denotes a place.
Their = Belonging to them.

Similarly. Your. You're.
You're taking your tools.
You're = A contraction of 'You are'.
Your = Belonging to you.

Its. It's.
It's time you put the tool back in its place.
It's = A contraction of 'It is'.
Its = Belonging to it

I've got to be honest and say that I don't understand what is so difficult about this. You've explained it very clearly I believe.

I blame email and latterly SMS messaging...

Robin

Another really common problem is the way to spell DEFINITE and DEFINITELY.
I definitely agree with that.
Note there is no A in definite.
Commonly seen as definate, defnatly etc.
The use of spell checkers often mean that the writer ends up with the wrong word entirely. Often Defiant appears in error.
Defiantly and defiant are not the same as definitely and definite.
Definite means not vague or doubtful.
Defiant means showing resistance or confrontational.

If you knew it was a sub of finite, there wouldn't be a difficulty. There is little structural teaching these days. All kicking ker, or curly ker, funetics and shapes.

Beth- I meant to type earlier, absolutely this has no bearing on dialect.
I know plenty of folks what talk funny, yet can still convey their opinion in the Queen's without issue.

Nuff sed.