How would you translate ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda’ into real words?
a) could of, would of, should of
OR
b) could have, would have, should have
If you chose b: could have, would have, should have, you are correct.
Why is that?
It’s something called the “third conditional”, which is a verb form used to communicate an event in the past that didn’t happen, such as: “If I hadn’t already eaten so many vegetables, I would have finished the burrito.”
It seems that there is some confusion surrounding this. The contraction of the two words ‘could have’ (could’ve) sounds a lot like ‘could of’. But, ‘could of’ is not correct English. It doesn’t mean anything (unless it’s in some other sentence construction, such as: “I could, of course, finish the burrito tonight.”)
Anyway, it’s all the fault of V8 juice.
Remember the saying: “I could have had a V8′? It all started there. Willy nilly, they threw out a saying, and even though they said, “could’ve”, it sounded a lot like “could of” and the rest is history.
By the way, did you know that V8 Vegetable Juice was invented by W.G. Peacock of Evanston, IL, in 1933? Campbell Soup Company acquired the V8 brand and secret recipe in 1948. They have been making V8 beverages ever since.