{"id":7524,"date":"2020-11-12T16:06:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T21:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=7524"},"modified":"2020-11-12T16:06:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T21:06:22","slug":"could-should-would-might","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/could-should-would-might\/","title":{"rendered":"Could, Should, Would, Might"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7525\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7525\" class=\"size-large wp-image-7525\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7525\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by Nebraska Department of Education from Pixabay, CCO<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I try not to play the role of grammar policeman among my family and friends, so I make every effort not to comment on grammatical mistakes when I see or hear them. But I do notice them. When the same mistakes keep appearing from multiple people, I can\u2019t help but wonder why.<\/p>\n<p>Lately, I\u2019ve been seeing and hearing one of the most common errors in the English language \u2013 confusing the <strong>preposition<\/strong> <em>of<\/em> with the <strong>verb<\/strong> <em>have<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cI could have walked to work, but I decided to drive instead.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI could of walked to work, but I decided to drive instead.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It happens all the time. <em>Of<\/em> and <em>have<\/em> actually sound alike, especially in informal conversation. However, the mistake should be obvious the moment it is written out. So, why am I still frequently seeing this error?<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\">Coulda\/Shoulda\/Woulda\/Mighta<\/h3>\n<p><em>Could have<\/em>, <em>should have<\/em>, <em>would have<\/em>, and <em>might have<\/em> are <strong>past tense modals<\/strong>, typically followed by a <strong>past participle verb<\/strong> which, in the example given above, would be <em>walked<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the problem, of course, is that we normally <strong>contract<\/strong> <em>would have<\/em>, <em>could have<\/em>, <em>should have<\/em>, and <em>might have<\/em> as <em>would\u2019ve<\/em>, <em>could\u2019ve<\/em>, <em>should\u2019ve<\/em>, and <em>might\u2019ve<\/em>. Native English speakers tend to be lazy at enunciation. What\u2019s more, colloquial speech further alters these contractions to woulda\u2019, coulda\u2019, shoulda\u2019, and mighta\u2019. 65 years ago, Marlon Brando famously uttered the line, \u201cI coulda\u2019 been a contender!\u201d to Rod Steiger in the film <em>On the Waterfront<\/em>. People have been using this bastardization of the contraction ever since; sometimes intentionally and ironically, but more often they are unaware of doing it.<\/p>\n<p>So, if you write words the way you speak them \u2013 a practice called <strong>phonetical spelling<\/strong> \u2013 you might convince yourself that these past tense modals are written with the preposition rather than the verb. But it\u2019s the verb that reveals the meaning.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take a closer look at these past tense modals and something called <strong>conditionals<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Could Have, or Could\u2019ve<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em>Could have<\/em> is a <strong>past conditional<\/strong>, stating that something was possible in the past, but did not happen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI could have gone home after work, but I decided to go out for a drink with my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI could\u2019ve had another slice of pie for dessert, but I\u2019m watching my weight.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Would Have, or Would\u2019ve<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em>Would have<\/em> takes two forms, depending on your intention. It could be a <strong>past unreal conditional<\/strong>, stating that, but for an unknown, there would be different results. The keyword in these phrases is <em>if<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would have gone home sooner <strong>if<\/strong> I had known that they needed to get up early.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would\u2019ve brought some wine <strong>if<\/strong> I knew that she expected us to stay for dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Would have<\/em> may also imply choice or regret. The conditional word in these phrases is <em>but<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would have taken a sweater, <strong>bu<\/strong>t the forecast was for a warm, sunny day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would\u2019ve been better off if I had trusted my instincts, <strong>but<\/strong> I was reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Should Have or Should\u2019ve<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em>Should have<\/em> is a past conditional directly stating regret. It refers to mistakes and is often used in apologies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know why I said that. I should have known better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou should\u2019ve told me that you were working until 10 tonight!\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Might Have or Might\u2019ve<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em>Might have<\/em> implies that something that was possible in the past did not occur. It is another past unreal conditional. Once again, look for the words <em>if<\/em> or <em>but<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI might have a very different career <strong>if<\/strong> I hadn\u2019t changed my college major.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe might\u2019ve dated sooner, <strong>but<\/strong> I was afraid that you thought I was weird.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just remember that the verb <em>(to)<\/em> <em>have<\/em> is crucial to the sentence. Using the preposition <em>of<\/em> simply doesn\u2019t make any sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake-350x350.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2020\/11\/Classic-Mistake.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>I try not to play the role of grammar policeman among my family and friends, so I make every effort not to comment on grammatical mistakes when I see or hear them. But I do notice them. When the same mistakes keep appearing from multiple people, I can\u2019t help but wonder why. Lately, I\u2019ve been&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/could-should-would-might\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":7525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[134956,135139],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-7524","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-grammar","category-english-language","tag-grammar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7526,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524\/revisions\/7526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}