Grammer

[tandh]

hey, which of these is correct please?
I should have told him
I should of told him

[Jackdaw33]

The former

[vulcan42]

have

[Davemano]

You should have written instead.

[cupid04]

grammar

[tandh]

lol @ cupid, this is a post about grammar, not spelling lol

Thanks guys, been meaning to find this out for ages

[Old_Geezer]

I should've told him.

[Arksided]

Should've, Could've, Would've. the apostrophe to abbreviate the word Have

[weecalf]

I'd say shudda said ta him lol

[jennyjoan]

I should have told him

and Grammer should be Grammar - sorry tand

[jennyjoan]

sorry never read the read of the postings.

[jennyjoan]

Come to me my darling if you want Grammar correctly pointed out - I was a proof-reader in my day. Things may have moved on now. Ok Tand - Anytime.

[jennyjoan]

Just to bum myself off here - I was paid for proof-reading and whilst it was not my job and I used to get a tidy sum of money. It was hard on the eyes.

[fiction-factory]

Yes, imagine what the sentence would be with out the "should"- would you say "I have told him" or "I of told him"?

[pips1]

If you look at the 'related questions' below, all 5 have spelt grammar wrong - unbelievable!

[anthro-nerd]

*grammar and 'should have' :-)

[dannyk13]

Have

[mushroom25]

what's considered correct usage in English is very much driven by common usage. the language evolves. many people (currently erroneously) write "should of", this is likely to become the correct way of shortening "should have". just like an apostrophe will eventually correctly denote a plural (it already does this unofficially, even in formal documentation) - I'm sure there are other examples you can reference yourself (such as the increasing substitution of the verb "to say" by the compound verb "to be like", as in "I was like", "he's like", etc)

[Prudie]

Commonest mistake in written work you'll ever see

[vulcan42]

Should have is already shortened to should've, should of doesn't make sense.

[zebo]

I've never seen an apostrophe denoting a plural without possession. If we begin to accept incorrect use of English then we demean the language. We were once having a Friday after-school wine and moan party, I brought up the incorrect use of 'of' for have and a very young colleague was surprised, she thought it was right!