“She could of called.”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Prepositions, Verbs

I sometimes see this type of misuse of “of”.

Problem:
The preposition “of” is the wrong word for this sentence.

Explanation:
Unfortunately, many use the preposition “of” when they should use the auxiliary verb “have” or its contracted form. As an auxiliary verb, “have” is used with past participles to form perfect tenses. For example, “I went to the store.” can be rewritten as “I have gone to the store.” or “I had gone to the store.” Another example: “They were the nicest neighbors.” can be rewritten as “They have been the nicest neighbors.” or “They had been the nicest neighbors.”

I believe that the use of “of” instead of “have” when the latter is appropriate represents

  • a laziness that favors contractions,
  • poor pronunciation and listening skills, and
  • ignorance about the basics of English.

The contraction “could’ve” is easier than the word sequence “could have” to say. This supports my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. Combine this laziness, poor pronunciation and listening skills, and ignorance about the basics of English, and you get “She could of called.” — ouch!

Solutions:
“She could’ve called.” or “She could have called.”

“Between” vs. “Among”

Common English Blunders, Prepositions, Versus

I often hear people use “between” when they mean “among”.

Problem:
The preposition “between” should not be used when expressing a relationship for three or more items.

Explanation:
The preposition “between” means in the space separating (two people, objects, etc.) or intermediate to. The primary definition of the preposition “among” is in the midst of.

If you look up the origin of “between”, you see that the tw in “between” is related to the tw in “two”. You can use this as a mnemonic to remind you that you should use “between” when expressing a relationship for two items and therefore that you should use “among” otherwise (for three or more items).

Solution:
Use “between” when you’re talking about two items; use “among” when you’re talking about three or more items.

“Toward” vs. “To”

Common English Blunders, Prepositions, Versus

Misuse of these two words is rare, but they’re worth a second look.

Problem:
The prepositions “toward” and “to” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The primary definition of the preposition “toward” is in the direction of. For example, flying toward Houston would be appropriate.

Aside:
You might wonder whether “toward” and “towards” mean the same thing. To most people, they do. The distinction is a dialectical one. “Toward” is more common in American English; “towards” is more common in British English.

Solution:
Use “toward” when you want to indicate in the direction of; use “to” otherwise.