You, sir, are a giant idiom!

Hej there,

I'm not a native speaker of English, but I enjoy the language a lot and always try to grasp as much as I can regarding expressions and idioms.

I've noticed on the forums that there's a lot of use of the phrase "they should of done that" or "I must of (checked the wrong box)", and I'd be curious if that is just shortwriting or internet slang, or if it's a common mistake. I believe it should be "they should've" or "I must have", right?

As a foreigner, I sure as hell won't raise a finger to correct native speakers, please understand this as a linguistic curiosity.

You're completely correct. If you want to see worse, check out Failbook and watch the terrible grammar on there. Makes me ashamed to be a fellow human!

So you're saying it's not on purpose? I figured it must of been (see what I did there?) a way to take a few shortcuts while typing, like "ok" or "gonna".

No, just pure ignorance. I think it stems from them trying to type a sentence/phrase phonetically.

Lol. The internet is not for grammar.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by timmytot666

Lol. The internet is not for grammar.

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It's for chocolate and chocolate related things.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RiotingSpectre

It's for chocolate and chocolate related things.

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Atleast she didn't say cat things.

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Wait until you stumble upon people who mix there, they're and their. :) Although for me (also not a native speaker) the "would of" mistake was quite shocking at first.

If they do it wrong for long enough, it will probably become correct.
It bothers me that 'addicting' has started that process. Every time I hear or see that one, it makes me want to kill a smurf.

Small changes in words is how languages develop. There have for example never been a complete language, they are constantly adjusting to how the people use them.

Things that completely disregard many rules of a language (like "of" instead of "have" and "then" instead of "than") on the other hand is probably a bit counterproductive as it breaks more than it evolves.