[overcast]

It's not pronounced "of", it's more like "ev", exactly like the contraction of words it's made up of. Would have.

[geocrasher]

In my household I'm the English nerd, although I have no degree behind it. I'd correct my wife when she wrote "would of" but then I listened closer when she talked: She wasn't saying "would've" she was saying "would of".

That's when I gave up. There are a million other reasons to love my wife, and her proper use of 'would've' wasn't one of them to begin with :)

[mikeryan]

Does your wife actually pronounce these differently? Small sample size but as far as I can tell I pronounce these identically. (CA - native speaker)

[geocrasher]

She does not. They are the same to her. We're also native speakers from the Reno NV area, which is heavily influenced by Sacramento and San Francisco language.

[chefandy]

əv

[Buge]

To me "would of" and "would've" are pronounced exactly the same.

If I said "would ev" that would sound weird. It would sound very similar to "whatev":

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whatev

[UnFleshedOne]

Well, nothing else in english is pronounced like it is written, so I don't think this is a good reason to misspell things.

[wkjagt]

Reminds me of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti

[Buge]

I agree completely. No one should write "would of".