Grammer

[tandh]

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

[zebo]

I also detest 'gifting', gift isn't a verb!

[bhg481]

The problem is "should've" sounds like "should of", so it's easy for people who don't think to write the wrong version. Many other similar examples - accept/except etc.

[KARL]

Another commonly heard/seen error is something like "The best thing for my wife and I is....". The previously mentioned advice can be used here to point out the error: Remove the words "my wife and" so you are left with

"The best thing for I is....."

[Old_Geezer]

I usually hear it the other way around. Phrases such as, "George and me went to the shops"... shudder

[bhg481]

Cliff Richard's song "In the Country" bugs me - "It belongs to you and I".

[ichkeria]

'Should of' is simply the mishearing or misunderstanding of 'should've' and is unlikely ever to be accepted as as correct.

[vulcan42]

Old_geezer, more and more I hear phrases such as "me and George..... " Double shudder.

[ichkeria]

'Me and George' is actually correct.
Strictly 'me' is
Cliff may have got it wrong with 'to you and I' but it's perfectly acceptable to use 'me' like that

[mushroom25]

//I've never seen an apostrophe denoting a plural without possession//

....have you never stood outside a greengrocer's? and looked at the prices for apple's, or potato's, or sprout's?

:-)

[elliemay1]

Mushroom, if those are on a chalk board I always rub out the apostrophes

[bhg481]

It all depends whether it's "George and I are going to Blackpool" or "He gave it to me and George".

[vulcan42]

ichkeria, I was taught at school you always put the other person first is this wrong?

[elliemay1]

zebo,
'Gift' Is Not a Verb - The Atlantic
www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/12/gifting-is-not-a-verb/383676/
12 Dec 2014 - And this is what makes "gifting" so implicitly pernicious. ... Gift-as-verb, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, has been around since the 17th century; it's derived, like "gift"-as-noun, from the Old English "asgift," meaning "payment for a wife" in the singular and "wedding" in the plural.

[ichkeria]

That's a different example. However:
'Who's there?'
'(It's)me and George'
He's a pedant? Me too!
:-)

[Jackdaw33]

You are right, ellie, Ichkeria is wrong.

[ichkeria]

It's not 'wrong' Vulcan. But the other way is not 'right'
They still teach at school apparently not to start sentences with conjunctions, which confuses our son as all the books he brings home from the same school do that very thing

[ichkeria]

This is a useful guide:
(There's a lot of nonsense talked about this)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv264.shtml

[vulcan42]

ichkeria, thank you, in my defence I will say it was a grammar school. :o)

[ichkeria]

Whether we like it or not "gift" IS a verb!

[ichkeria]

As mushroom said earlier vulcan, grammar changes with usage, or at least some aspects of it do. I guess some of these things are down to that