What's with all the apostrophes?

See Romans 1:22

Sadly, you are correct. I've noticed it in newspapers as well. It seems a simple 's' to signify plurality doesn't satisfy people any longer and they want something fancier.......

As to the contractions, that baffles me. There really isn't any place in the English language for 'should of'' - at least, not the way it is being used. Instead of saying "He should have taken an earlier train" you often see "He should of taken an earlier train." Doesn't make sense, when you look at it and in fact, 'should've', as the abbreviation for 'should have' is what should be used.

"Ton's of squirrel's are in my yard, climbing on the tree's."

These errors are made by people who have not been taught or have not bothered to learn that an apostrophe does NOT signify a plural.

"...sadly think the contraction "should've" is short for "should of"..."

Here, the contraction " should've" is little-used but is correct because it is a contraction of "should have". ("Should of" is a common error.)

My guess is that it's to do with separating the S from its stem noun. (Is "stem" the right term?)

In most instances in English, it's easy to identify the stem noun:

• ton → tons

• squirrel → squirrels

• comment → comments

However, this can get trickier when the noun's final letter is a vowel. In roughly increasing order of obscurity:

• gate → gates

• tree → trees

• area → areas

• emu → emus

As they say in the classics, compare and contrast:

• boas – alas – eras

• aromas – Thomas – stigmas – fracas – deltas – atlas

• ices – ides – axes – St. Ives – dives – Dives

• semis – aegis – blinis – cassis – bikinis – derris – corgis

• egos – Eros – dodos – adios – euros – Lagos – pesos

• emus – plus – gnus – genus – jabirus

• sinus – menus – minus

• zebus – rebus

Murkying the waters:

• BMW → BMWs ?

• IOU → IOUs ??

• .exe → .exes ??

• ETA → ETAs ??

• A, B and C → As, Bs and Cs ???

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As I mentioned, all this is just a guess. Still, the misuse of apostrophes isn't (yet) ubiquitou's. :)

i've noticed that there are quite a few people that can't spell, but i haven't noticed -that- much apostrophe overuse.

good gosh. the plethora of bad spellers scares me enough.

now you say there are many who cannot punctuate as well??

especially when it's as simple as your example?!

the only reason that i can come up with is sheer laziness.

i've been out of school more than many on here are old, but i do make the effort, sometimes to the extent of researching my doubts longer than it takes me to research an answer.

it's really spooky when it's the students, presently in school, and, our future leaders.