A very common mistake involves writing 'should of' instead of 'should have' e.g. 'Alan knew that he should of bought the car.' This is incorrect. It should be -

Alan knew that he should have bought the car.

Alternatively, you could also use a shortened form -

Alan knew that he should've bought the car.

In a similar way it is also very common to see 'would of' written instead of 'could have' e.g. 'If I had known she felt like that, I would of said something.' This should be written -

If I had known she felt like that, I would have said something

Alternatively, you could use a short form -

If I had known she felt like that, I would've said something.

	Created by Bob Read over 8 years ago

	Copied by Linda Castelletti about 8 years ago

revision of common mistakes in English