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1. The one that really annoys me is how people suddenly seem to confuse "have" and "of", as in: "I could of learnt how to write properly." There's no excuse for it!
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I challenge anyone to discern the difference between "I could've" and "I could of" when hearing it. The only fair complaint is if it's written [s]wrong[/s] wrongly.
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18. The usage that I find particularly irritating is that of a single noun with a plural verb, for example: "the team are happy with their victory", or "management have congratulated the workforce on the recent increase in productivity". Team is a singular noun so it should read "the team IS happy..." or "the team members ARE happy", the same applies "management HAS congratulated..."
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I'd bet that the submitter of this one has been listening to (or reading) American rather than English. In school (late 1960s) we were taught the rule that a collective noun takes a plural verb. I asked for an example and the teacher could not come up with one. Twenty years later, I travel to England, pick up a copy of
The Times and see the rule illustrated, "Parliament are ..."
Edit -- hmmm... looks like this site doesn't support markup for a strike-thru.