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must of vs must have

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Are the two sentences below have the same exact meaning or they slightly differ from each other?

1. With drugs for pain, anxiety, and insomnia he must of felt some kind of pressure.
2. With drugs for pain, anxiety, and insomnia he must have felt some kind of pressure.
New Member15
:
Hi,

Are Do the two sentences below have the same exact meaning or do they slightly differ from each other?

1. With drugs for pain, anxiety, and insomnia, he must of felt some kind of pressure. 'Must of' is not correct grammar. When some people hear must've, they think that what they heard sounded like must of so they start to say that, in error.

2. With drugs for pain, anxiety, and insomnia, he must have felt some kind of pressure.

Best wishes, Clive
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:
must have felt
means:
he very probably felt
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:
Thank you very much for the explanation.

Just wanted to tell you that I took that phrase must of from a native American who writes a blog (she seems to be educated). I have never heard it before and that is why I asked about it thinking it meant must have felt. Anyway, thank you very much for the information.
:
Perhaps she wants to sound "popular, folksy" Emotion: zip it
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UnlimitedJust wanted to tell you that I took that phrase must of from a native American who writes a blog (she seems to be educated). I have never heard it before and that is why I asked about it thinking it meant must have felt.
Hi,
she is probably educated, but either that was a typo (she mispelled it while typing fast) or she wrote it that way on purpose.

The fact is that "must've" and "must of" would be pronounced the same, so writing "You must of been nuts" is like writing "Your the best!" instead of "You're the best", which would be pronounced the same. So it's just a spelling mistake, either made on purpose or because you are not paying much attention to what you type.

You might also see it written "musta been", where the V sound in "must've" is so weak it practically disappears. Without even the T is sounds pretty African American to me: "Dat mussa bin a typo." Emotion: stick out tongue

All those are not standard in common written English, but you might occasionally find them spelled that way in comic strips, some informal advertisements, some novels, etc.
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Unlimitedshe seems to be educated
Appearances are often deceiving. She meant 'must have'.
CJ
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Anonymous:
must of is improper
Anonymous:
This is a very old post but it's been very useful to me. Thank you!
Recently, I got a few lessons from a native american "teacher" who told me that "could of" was correct. I told her that I heard a sentence in a movie that left me thinking. It was in a Star Wars movie (he, great dialogs!) were someone said "Who could've done this?"
She almost drove me nuts, because I was (almost) sure she was wrong, but I couldn't argue.
I said that it sounded to me like "could of" or "could have" with the "h" almost silenced, and I asked her if that was common in spoken English.

Those little details are very hard to learn for a foreign student, and strangely, they are often ignored by teachers.

Thanks again!
Luis
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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