# Couldn't of/couldn't have **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 15, 2020, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156 "2020-08-15T05:34:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/282 "2020-08-22T20:41:29Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > For me it’s something more like “wuh-stur-shure”. Yeah, for me the first syllable is more like the “oo” in “book” than the “oo” in “boo.” So, “wuh” might be a closer non-IPA approxiamtion. So /wʊs/ if you’re doing IPA. ---
**Author:** ![CardboardBoxx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardboardboxx/32/7079_2.png) [@CardboardBoxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CardboardBoxx)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/283 "2020-08-22T23:31:45Z")
You **wuss, Tu** lly. Don’t be **shy**! It’'ll be your turn **ere** long ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/284 "2020-08-23T00:39:03Z")
I’d like to go back to cats. I missed the cats. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/285 "2020-08-23T00:43:18Z")
But are there any ultimatums\*? \*Yes, the plural would be ultimata, if we were speaking Latin, but I think in this particular context, “ultimatums” works better. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/286 "2020-08-23T06:57:45Z")
beware the penultimatum ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/287 "2020-08-23T19:51:32Z")
Sounds like a flasher. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/288 "2020-08-23T20:38:07Z")
He creeps at night, and suddenly, there he is…SECOND TO LAST! HE WILL ACCEPT NO OTHER POSITION! Offer him anything else, and you will find out what real pain is! ---
**Author:** ![ThisIsTheEnd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisistheend/32/4713_2.png) [@ThisIsTheEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsTheEnd)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/289 "2020-08-23T21:49:33Z")
His friends call him Mr. November. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/290 "2020-08-23T21:58:55Z")
But he was born in February. On the 28th. Of a Leap Year. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/291 "2020-08-24T12:15:28Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > \*Yes, the plural would be ultimata, if we were speaking Latin, but I think in this particular context, “ultimatums” works better. > [@eschereal](#): > > beware the penultimatum Somehow the sum of these two made me think of “automata ultimata.” Which caused me to ask: From “I’ll be back!” to our own @BeepKillBeep how many times in literature, film, etc., has a machine issued a dire threat or a “do it or else” line? Gotta be lots. Which in turn raises the word choice question of whether “lots” is appropriate for a countable noun phrase or should that be “many”? How do the adjectives for qualitative quantity (is there an official term for that idea?) break down in applicability between countable vs. noncountable? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/292 "2020-08-24T12:20:13Z")
Great. Just when I’d made a dent in my insomnia. ---
**Author:** ![jerseymule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jerseymule/32/3155_2.png) [@jerseymule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerseymule)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/293 "2020-08-26T17:41:31Z")
One of my friends threw a hissy fit when he heard our waitress say “I’ll be right back with you guys’s checks.” Pronounced the same as “you guises.” My friend felt that the poor waitress did not deserve any tip at all after saying that. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/294 "2020-08-26T18:01:32Z")
She should have added “plus a constant” ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/295 "2020-08-26T18:10:59Z")
I get it. Can anyone else explain it? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/296 "2020-08-26T18:42:02Z")
I can, but I probably should let someone else do it. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/297 "2020-08-26T18:43:07Z")
Well of course you can, **Andy\_L** , it was your post. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/298 "2020-08-27T01:56:45Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Could of”, and “should of”, etc. are unacceptable and should be forever. There’s no excuse for that illiteracy. I learned this in like grade 5. I wasn’t taught that in grade 5. Also, I missed most of grade 4, and all of grade 6. I also missed most of the ‘hard’ spelling words, and, until this thread, thought that the possessive of “it” was written the way it is written in the constitution. Am I excused? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/299 "2020-08-27T02:00:38Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > > [@BigT](#): > > > > Style guides are not what I go by. It’s more about how people say it. People say “Jesus’ name” a lot, but I never hear anyone refer to “Chris’ house”–it’s always “Chris’s house.” > > But “Chris’ house” is strictly about a spelling convention. The second s-sound is implied, and you say it the same way for either style - “Kriss-uhzz.” I just don’t agree. The apostrophe started as a way to show letters had been omitted in speech. Possessives were originally written with an -es at the end, while possessive plurals just got an -e. Granted, things can change from their origin (hence the etymological fallacy). But we don’t add an extra syllable to plural possessives, and often to certain other singular words, so the difference still seems to be in effect. Besides, without that convention, I have no grammatically acceptable way of notating the difference when transcribing speech. I can’t write whether someone said “Jesus’ name” (JEE-zuhs NAEM) or “Jesus’s name” (JEE-zuh-sis NAEM). I just believe that general writing (i.e., when not being deliberately formal) should try to reflect how people actually speak. Yes, that includes that parenthetical I included–it describes how I speak. So does the em-dash. It’s also why I think the _New York Times_’ overuse of commas is annoying. I find it difficult to read, as the voice in my head pauses too much. I have to mentally translate it to “normal” speech. (Not that this means one should overuse commas where they don’t fit grammatically. When necessary and significant, there are other ways to illustrate such… pauses.) ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/300 "2020-08-27T02:08:13Z")
I have an ex girlfriend whose mom says “you’s guys”. Probably standard in the Brooklyn area according to TV and movies. Not Milwaukee. She’s the only one I’ve met in this region that says it. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2020, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156/301 "2020-08-27T02:25:07Z")
That is spelt “youse”, not “you’s”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couldnt-of-couldnt-have/918156.md?page=16)