HonaloochieB Wrote: ------------------------ > Could've in speech, which comes out as could of is > perfectly fine, though in writing is abysmal. No no no. Actually deliberately saying "Could of" rather than in sounding like that in an accent is as bad as writing it, possibly worse. You could argue in some accents "could of" in writing is writing the sounds you hear, whereas saying the words "could of" is just plain wrong.