Should you write ‘would have’ or ‘would of’?
Is there a difference between the two?
Is would’ve a word?
The problem with this English grammar issue is that when you SAY ‘would have’ out loud, it can sound like ‘would of’.
It is a mistake that people make a lot, even some native speakers of English make this mistake!
WOULD HAVE
Examples:
I would have had a barbecue last Saturday, but it was raining all weekend.
If your parents had asked me, I would have picked them up from the airport.
In grammar, these example sentences above are known as 3rd conditionals or Perfect conditionals. The person saying the sentence is showing regret, or wants to change the past situation.
If you want to write WOULD HAVE in a short way, then write WOULD’VE
WOULD’VE
When you speak quickly, WOULD HAVE is shortened (or ‘contracted’) to WOULD’VE
…. and it sounds almost exactly the same as saying WOULD OF
Here is the pronunciation of these confusing words in the way you would find them written in a dictionary (with phonetics)
WOULD HAVE = wʊd hæv
WOULD’VE = wʊdəv
WOULD OF = wʊdəv or wʊdɒv
WOULD OF
WOULD OF is NOT the same as WOULD HAVE
If you write WOULD OF in sentences like the examples above, it is a big grammatical mistake!
If you are taking an English test like IELTS or FCE and you write WOULD OF, you will definitely lose marks for grammar knowledge.
DO NOT write WOULD OF!!!
IMPORTANT
The ONLY time that you will need to write WOULD OF is in sentences (like these below) which are NOT COMMON.
I would, of course, pick them up from the airport if they can’t book a taxi.
She’s only asking you what she would of herself.
Both of these type of sentences are almost definitely not going to be written by you in an Academic English exam, so delete WOULD OF from your writing!
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