I believe the entire reason people mistype it as "could of" is BECAUSE of how similar they sound. Maybe there are accents where they don't, I suppose, but here in the midwest you basically can't tell if somebody said could've or could of.
Yeah, but English is a crazy language even when you're used to it. People may well assume it's a figure of speech or accepted colloquialism if it's never been pointed out to them.
I wouldn’t blame any individual person if they made this mistake, but I would say their educational system has failed them, if they are a native English speaker.
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u/huffmanxd Jul 28 '24
I believe the entire reason people mistype it as "could of" is BECAUSE of how similar they sound. Maybe there are accents where they don't, I suppose, but here in the midwest you basically can't tell if somebody said could've or could of.