There are some things that I can’t get used to, however many times I hear or read them – and however often people say they’ve become part of the English language.
Sure, English, like any language, develops and changes as it hits the shores of different lands and mixes with other dialects and languages. It bends to the influences of arriving communities and the demands of changing and developing technologies.
But some things are plain wrong, especially in written English. They have developed from a mishearing or a misunderstanding.
should of
A good example of this is “should of” or “would/could of”, or even “may of”.
“My injuries normally would of admitted me to Stoke Mandeville Spinal Hospital … ” said a man whose story was told in a newspaper a couple of days ago.
Or “… nothing would of worked to get her down” in a story about firefighters not being able to get a cat caught up a tree.
Another firefighter was reported to have said some deliberately lit fires “… could of delayed us from attending more important incidents.”
They may well have been what the people said, but I would go so far as to make the case that journalists – for whom quotes, like facts, are sacred – should correct the wrong use of “of” in these quotes. The mistake results from a misspelling of the abbreviations “would’ve” (from “would have”) and “could’ve” (could have).
The reporter should know that in English words that sound the same can be spelled in different ways … and here the key word should be spelled “h-a-v-e”, not “o-f”.
was stood there
“She was just stood there”, or, “He was sat there reading a book” are painful to the ear and uncomfortable to read. The correct forms of the verb in each sentence are “standing” and “sitting”. They are describing actions that were going on at the time that the speaker was talking about.
hot temperature
Temperature can be higher or lower, not hotter or cooler. Temperature is a reading, a numerical definition of how hot something is, whether it’s the weather, a cup of tea, or a pint of beer.
between… and/to
Quite often writers will use a “between/to” combination when defining a range of, say, years or weights. They might write “The couple stayed overseas between 10 to 15 years”, or “The boy’s weight ranged between 10 to 15kg over six months”. “Between” in those examples should be followed by “and” rather than “to” …
There were between 15 and 20 soldiers on duty,
or
The temperatures stayed between 20 and 30 degrees all week.
Another mistake is to use “or” as in “We must choose between Tagore or Shakespeare for our literature classes”. The choice is always between one and the other, not or the other.
Whatstheword 