Would have, would’ve or would of

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Grammarist

Would is an expression of the past tense of will. Would also is used to express consequences of an imagined event. Would may also convey consent. Would have is often expressed as the contraction would’ve, especially in speech. Would’ve sounds perilously like would of, however would of is not correct and should never be used. Would is one of the one thousand most frequently used words in the English language according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Contractions have been around as long as the English language, many examples exist in Old English. Interestingly, while the use of contractions has always been popular in spoken English, there have been periods in history when the use of contractions in written English was frowned upon. Today, contractions such as would’ve are not generally used in academic and scientific writing, but may be found in more informal methods of written communication.

Examples

Speaking to Shiv Sahay Singh, Dr. Mishra, who lost from Narayangarh in Paschim Medinipur district by a margin of over 14,500 votes, said that had the tie-up of secular democratic forces not happened, the Bharatiya Janata Party would have emerged as the second most prominent force in the State. (The Hindu)

As the survey findings demonstrate, while AIUDF supporters would have backed a Congress-AIUDF alliance overwhelmingly (75%), only a fourth of Congress Hindu voters approved of such a tie-up. (The Indian Express)

Had this year’s Eurovision song contest followed old voting rules, Australia would have triumphed over Ukraine, according to new analysis by data journalism site FiveThirtyEight. (The Guardian)

“I didn’t think about 22 — that’s just something you don’t do, that’s a guy who worked so hard and accomplished so much at this organization that would’ve been kind of disrespectful to wear his number.” (The Dallas Morning News)

“Well, it’s certainly more of a consideration than it was, for the reasons we’ve mentioned before, that you don’t have to be the perfect Stepford candidate like you would’ve been in the past,” he said. (The Texas Tribune)