I think the mistake might come from a lack of reading. The contraction “should’ve” is often used in speech, which might be mistakenly written as “should of” if you don’t read a lot and see it written properly all the time. We’ve mostly lost the voiced quality of “v” at the ends of words like that, so it’s basically pronounced “should-uf” in American English.
I mean, it’s rather obvious it’s just written down as it’s spoken - like “bone apple tea”. But while it’s relatable that someone who doesn’t know any French cannot write “bon appétit”, I don’t get how a native speaker could write “should of” and thinking yeah that makes complete sense.
It’s also not an auto-correct problem like “there, they’re, their” may have originated (I hope it did).
I think the mistake might come from a lack of reading. The contraction “should’ve” is often used in speech, which might be mistakenly written as “should of” if you don’t read a lot and see it written properly all the time. We’ve mostly lost the voiced quality of “v” at the ends of words like that, so it’s basically pronounced “should-uf” in American English.
I mean, it’s rather obvious it’s just written down as it’s spoken - like “bone apple tea”. But while it’s relatable that someone who doesn’t know any French cannot write “bon appétit”, I don’t get how a native speaker could write “should of” and thinking yeah that makes complete sense.
It’s also not an auto-correct problem like “there, they’re, their” may have originated (I hope it did).
I understand to some extent, thanks!