Tag Archives: could of

Could of/should of and Canadian English

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Could of/should of are older than we think: elsewhere in this blog I reported on their occurrence already in 18th-century English. It is also the feature in the Attitudes Survey that calls for the most comments, mostly negative (very negative!) … Continue reading →

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Attitudes survey: we need you!

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

So far, 589 people have filled in my Attitudes Survey, which is fantastic: thank you all! But I would like to have more responses, not because I’m greedy, but to make for greater representativeness of what people – not only … Continue reading →

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Grammatical reinterpretation

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Coming back from our summer holidays, I’m steadily working my way through the backlog of newspapers (primarily NRC Handelsblad). One of the things that stuck was something I read in a column by language historian and journalist Ewoud Sanders, from 25 June. … Continue reading →

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Could of?

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

This gallery contains 3 photos.

One of my (British) colleagues the other day mentioned that his sixteen-year-old daughter was very much surprised to learn that of in could of was not a preposition but an auxiliary verb. (For clarity’s sake, the girl’s father is a linguist and … Continue reading →

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