I have a general feeling that saying “I am bored/fed up of this” is not as correct as saying “I am bored/fed up with this”. I get this feeling because it sounds a lot like saying “could of” instead of “could have”, which just drives me round the twist.
But a contraction of “with” to “of” doesn’t meld as well. So is it just a personal thing with me or is one or other of the words more correct?
Fran
At the risk of running into another “At” or “In” issue (and being again corrected), I’d have to say that I don’t think I have never heard the construction *“bored of this” or *“fed up of this.” And if I did, I would probably assume that I had misheard the speaker or that English was not her first language.
I’m assuming that the parallel, and admitedly more common, construction would be “tired of this,” so I can see where generalization might be changing the construction.
The only “bored of” construction I can think of is in the title Bored of the Rings, and that was clearly a parody.
Perhaps this is a regionalism? Francesca, can you tell us a bit more? If you hear others (and yourself) using this construction, it could help if we know where you live.
I definitely used to hear ‘bored of’ when I was younger, and remember being chastised (mildly) by teachers and parents if I used it. Can’t remember having heard it recently though…
Chalk me up as another one who didn’t check your profile, Francesca.
If I could, I would modify my original post to read “or that American English was not her first language.”
I didn’t realise it’s an English-English thing. Interesting. For the record, i live in the South East of England, but i’m pretty sure i’ve heard people from all regions of the UK use it. It sometimes sounds like “I’m bored 'a that now”.
Sounds like a schwa sound to me. “I’m bored uh that now.” My history-of-the-language professor taught me one very important lesson about the schwa: One day, and that day will come sooner than you think, it will be our only vowel. Practically every vowell in English has been sliding toward schwa since the Great Vowel Shift.
I say, a schwa could be anything. Interpret it as “with” and move on!
And some of the consonants are sliding around, too, evidently.
:rolleyes:
“Bored with” is correct; “bored of” never could be.
Using “could of”, “should of,” “would of,” etc. is driving me crazy too, and in the U.S. it’s getting worse. Laziness!
Same goes for “could have did,” “should have went,” and “I seen”–all of which are invading people’s speech like a virus.
And for the last time: “It’s” means “it is.”
“Its” means “belonging to it.”
And there is no such thing as “its’” or “I’am”, for that matter.
Sorry I got on a tear. Just had to get it out of my system.
I, personally, have never heard anyone ever say “could of” or any similar construction. What I have heard often is the grammatically-correct construction “could’ve”, a contraction for “could have”, which is coincidentally pronounced the same as “could of”. Just because a correct construction sounds like an unrelated wrong construction doesn’t mean that it’s wrong.
I’m certain that I have some grammatical mistakes in this post, by the way. Feel free to point them out; I don’t care.
Chronos is correct about “could’ve,” but it isn’t quite what I meant to say.
I’ll clarify:
I see my students actually writing the words in their papers: could of (instead of could have), etc.
Apparently they’re writing what they hear without thinking about the fact that it doesn’t work grammatically when written.