Post #526032 by woofmutt on Sun, Apr 25, 2010 8:56 AM

"Been noticing a number of people wrongly writing "would of" instead of "would've", and incorrectly writing "ect." instead of "etc." which is the correct way." -GROG-

I'd guess the "would of" mistake is made due to general usage in speech (whether proper or not) and the way it is pronounced aloud (or in the head) by most American speakers of English. "Would of" is gonna pert near always be said (thought) as "woulduv" so when writing it many people would assume the spelling is "would of" when they really mean "would've" and they don't pause to realize that "would've" is a contraction of "would" and "have." Life on the Internet is very fast paced and no one has time to worry about your you're or to two too or do due or weird or definite, et cetera.

The incorrect "ect." spelling for "et cetera" is not recent. I saw a picture of an Alaska boom town from the Gold Rush days and noticed a sign painted on the side of a store listing what the store sold ended the list with "ect" and I think it's unlikely the store was offering gold seekers electroconvulsive therapy.