Oz--one f or two?

[Tom Zurinskas]

Because "of" is pronounced ~uv, "could've" can sound exactly like "could of".  No wonder some folks spell it as it sounds.

The spelling of the sound ~v would be regular by the letter "v" but for one word "of" where the letter "f" spells the sound of ~v. But "of" is a popular word and has a big affect.

Some of us may have seen the quiz to identify the number of "f"s in a written sentence.  Most of us miss the "f"s in the word "of".  This is interesting because our brain shifts to identifying the sound of f rather than the vision of the letter f right before our eyes.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
see truespel.com phonetic spelling












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> Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:27:31 -0400
> From: wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: Oz--one f or two?
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: Oz--one f or two?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I saw plenty of "ofs" in this context when I was grading themes, but I doubt
> very much that I ever saw an "off." Caution alone prevents me from swearing
> to it.
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 4:12 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Victor Steinbok
>> Subject: Oz--one f or two?
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Spotted in the commentary by an Australian reader of TPM:
>>
>> "Thankfully we had travel insurance as there would have been no way we
>> _could of_ afforded treatment."
>>
>>
>> I used to think it was mostly the American privilege to write like this.
>> Now I've seen it in published or written sentences by people from the UK
>> (including Scotland), Ireland and Australia (no non-native speakers AFAIK).
>>
>> These come in both "of" and "off" variants (no "ifs" so far). I suppose,
>> it's one of my pet peeves.
>>
>> VS-)
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
> Platypus"
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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