Should have or should of: which is correct?
Standard form
should have / could have / would have
Non-standard
should of
Non-standard
could of
Non-standard
would of
Non-standard
must of
Summary
Standard form: should have / could have / would have — Non-standard: should of / could of / would of / must of. Should have, could have, would have and must have are modal verbs followed by the auxiliary have; the contractions are should've, could've, would've.
- Part of speech
- verb phrase
- Source
- Oxford
Why
Oxford: the contraction should've sounds exactly like should of, but of is a preposition and cannot follow a modal verb. The standard forms are should have, could have, would have; write the contraction with an apostrophe (should've) or spell have out.
Examples
- You should have called first.
- We could have finished an hour earlier.
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- Merriam-Webster / Oxford
- Spelling authority
- Merriam-Webster · Oxford English Dictionary / Oxford spelling · SCOWL
- Commonly confused and non-standard forms
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