’

See also: ' [U+0027 APOSTROPHE], ʼ [U+02BC MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE], ʹ [U+02B9 MODIFIER LETTER PRIME], ′ [U+2032 PRIME], ᾿ [U+1FBF GREEK PSILI], and ᾽ [U+1FBD GREEK KORONIS]

’ U+2019, ’ RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK ← ‘ [U+2018] General Punctuation ‚ → [U+201A]

՚ U+055A, ՚ ARMENIAN APOSTROPHE ← ՙ [U+0559] Armenian ՛ → [U+055B]

Translingual

Alternative forms

The ASCII apostrophe may be used for all language-specific forms listed below:

• '

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Punctuation mark

’

1. Used as a quotation mark in some languages.
   1. ‘ ’
   2. ’ ‘
   3. ’ ’
   4. ‚ ’
   5. ‛ ’
2. (informal) A substitute for the letter ⟨ʼ⟩ for glottal stop and ejective consonants in the orthographies of various languages of America, Africa, and the Pacific.
3. (informal, in transliterated Arabic and Hebrew text) A substitute for ⟨ʼ⟩ for hamza.
4. (informal, in transliterated Cyrillic text) A substitute for the modifying diacritic ⟨ʹ⟩ used to transliterate the soft sign ⟨ь⟩ and palatalized consonants.
5. (international standards) transliteration of Sanskrit avagraha ऽ (or equivalents)

See also

Punctuation

• apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ )
• curly brackets or braces (US) ( { } )
• square brackets or brackets (US) ( [ ] )
• colon ( : )
• comma ( , )
• dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― )
• ellipsis ( … )
• exclamation mark ( ! )
• fraction slash ( ⁄ )
• guillemets ( « » ) ( ‹ › )
• hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ )
• interpunct ( · )
• interrobang (rare) ( ‽ )
• brackets or parentheses (US, Canada) ( ( ) )
• full stop or period (US, Canada) ( . )
• question mark ( ? )
• quotation marks (formal) ( ‘ ’ ‚ ) ( “ ” „ )
• quotation marks (informal, computing) ( " ) ( ' )
• semicolon ( ; )
• slash or stroke (UK) ( / )
• space ( ] [ )

quotation marks and quotation dashes in all languages (edit)

• Afrikaans: “ ”, ‘ ’, „ ”, ‚ ’
• Albanian: „ “, ‘ ’
• Arabic: « », ( ), “ ”
• Armenian: « »
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: « », “ ”
• Azerbaijani: « », ‹ ›, “ ”, " ", ‘ ’, ' '
• Basque: « », ‹ ›, “ ”, ‘ ’
• Belarusian: « », “ ”
• Bulgarian: „ “, ’ ’, ‘ ’, « », ’ ’, ‘ ’, —
• Catalan: « », “ ”, ‘ ’
• Chinese: “ ”, ‘ ’, 「 」, 『 』
• Czech: „ “, ‚ ‘, » «, › ‹
• Danish: » «, „ “, › ‹, ‚ ’, ” ”, ’ ’
• Dutch: ‘ ’, “ ”, ‚ ’, „ ”
• English U.K.: ' ', " ", ‘ ’, “ ”
• English U.S.: " ", ' ', “ ”, ‘ ’
• Esperanto: “ ”, ‘ ’, —
• Estonian: „ “, « »
• Filipino: “ ”, ‘ ’
• Finnish: ” ”, ’ ’, » »
• French: « », ‹ ›, “ ”, —
• Georgian: „ “, ‚ ‘, » «, › ‹
• German: „ “, ‚ ‘   ;   » «, › ‹   ;   regional: « », ‹ ›
• Greek: « », “ ”, —
• Hungarian: „ ”, » «, —
• Icelandic: „ “, ‚ ‘
• Indonesian: “ ”, ‘ ’
• Interlingua: “ ”, ‘ ’
• Irish: “ ”, ‘ ’
• Italian: « », ‹ ›, ‟ ”, ‛ ’
• Japanese: 「 」, 『 』, 〝 〟, 〝 〞
• Korean: “ ”, ‘ ’, 『 』, 「 」
• Latvian: « », „ “
• Lithuanian: « », „ “
• Lower Sorbian: „ “, ‚ ‘
• Macedonian: „ “, ’ ‘
• Northern Kurdish: « »
• Norwegian: « », „ “, ‘ ’, ‚ ‘
• Persian: « »
• Polish: „ ”, « », » «, —
• Portuguese: “ ”, ‘ ’, « », —
• Romanian: „ ”, « », —
• Russian: « », „ “, „ ”, —
• Serbo-Croatian: „ ”, ” ”, ‘ ’, ’ ’, „ “, » «
• Slovak: „ “, ‚ ‘, » «, › ‹
• Slovene: „ “, ‚ ‘, » «, › ‹
• Spanish: « », “ ”, ‘ ’, —
• Swedish: ” ”, ’ ’, » », » «, —
• Thai: “ ”, ‘ ’
• Turkish: “ ”, ‘ ’, « », › ‹, —
• Ukrainian: « », „ ”, ‚ ‘
• Vietnamese: “ ”, —
• Welsh: ‘ ’, “ ”

quotation marks - all matched-pairs

• Curved double quotation marks: “ ”, ” ”, „ ”, „ “, ‟ ”
• Curved single quotation marks: ‘ ’, ’ ’, ‚ ’, ‚ ‘, ’ ‘, ‛ ’
• Straight double quotation marks: " "
• Straight single quotation marks: ' '
• Guillemets: « », » «, » »
• Single guillemets: ‹ ›, › ‹
• Corner brackets: 「 」, 『 』
• Prime quotation marks: 〝 〟, 〝 〞

quotation marks and quotation dashes - all single characters

• Curved double quotation marks: “, ”, „, ‟
• Curved single quotation marks and apostrophes: ‘, ’, ‚, ‛
• Straight double quotation mark: "
• Straight single quotation mark and apostrophe: '
• Prime quotation marks: 〝, 〞, 〟
• Guillemets: «, »
• Single guillemets: ‹, ›
• Corner brackets: 「, 」, 『, 』
• Quotation dashes: — (em dash), ― (horizontal bar), – (en dash)

Further reading

• ’ on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Symbol

’

1. Indicating the omission of letters or digits.

   tho’, they’ll, ’65, ’ospital

Usage notes

• When indicating a possessive (see -') and omission of letters, this symbol is called an apostrophe.

Armenian

Punctuation mark

’

1. Armenian apostrophe, ապաթարց (apatʻarcʻ)
   1. In Old Armenian placed before the preposition ի (i) to differentiate it from words starting with the letter ի.

      ’ի տուն ― ’i tun ― to home

   2. In literary Western Armenian, replaces reduced vowels, especially in the case of the particles կը (kə), մը (mə), չի (čʻi).

      կ’ըսէ ― k’əsē ― says

      չ’երթար ― čʻ’ertʻar ― doesn't go

   3. In transliterating European proper nouns with apostrophes, such as names with the particles d’, O', transliterates the apostrophe.

      Ժաննա դ’Արկ ― Žanna d’Ark ― Joan of Arc

Usage notes

• According to the Unicode Standard, U+055A ARMENIAN APOSTROPHE has the same shape and function as the Latin apostrophe at U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK, which is preferred.

See also

• (The Armenian script): Աա   Բբ   Գգ   Դդ   Եե   Զզ   Էէ   Ըը   Թթ   Ժժ   Իի   Լլ   Խխ   Ծծ   Կկ   Հհ   Ձձ   Ղղ   Ճճ   Մմ   Յյ   Նն   Շշ   Ոո   Չչ   Պպ   Ջջ   Ռռ   Սս   Վվ   Տտ   Րր   Ցց   Ււ   Փփ   Քք   Օօ   Ֆֆ
• (Letter combinations): ու   և   ﬔ   ﬕ   ﬓ   ﬗ   ﬖ
• (Dialectological): ՠ / ա̈   ա̊   ա̄   ը̂   է̀   էօ / օ̈   էօ̀ / օ̈̀   իւ / ո̈ւ   գ^յ   կ^յ   ք^յ   հ^յ   բՙ   դՙ   գՙ   ձՙ   ջՙ   ղՙ   ֈ   ʔ  
• (Punctuation):  ՙ    ՚   ՛   ՜   ՝   ՞   ՟   ․   ։   ֊
• (Symbols): ֏ ֎ ֍

Belarusian

Symbol

’

1. Indicating the non-palatalization of the preceding consonant before a soft vowel.

Finnish

Symbol

’

1. Alternative spelling of ’

Usage notes

See the usage notes under the entry.

German

Symbol

’

1. Indicating the omission of letters.
   • In case of enclitic pronouns: wenn es → wenn’s, gibt es → gibt’s
   • (sometimes proscribed) In case of merging of prepositions and articles: auf dem → auf’m
   • In case of omission of e in the present indicative: ich gehe → ich geh’, wir/sie gehen → wir/sie geh’n
   • (sometimes proscribed) In case of the omission of e in the imperative singular: gehe du → geh’ du
   • (archaic) In case of the omission of e in the imperative plural: gehet ihr → geh’t ihr
   • (archaic) In case of the omission of e in the past participle: entdecket → entdeck’t, bezeuget → bezeug’t
   • (archaic) In case of the omission of e in the genitive case: Gottes → Gott’s, Königes → König’s

Usage notes

• In many cases where letters are omitted, there are also spellings without an apostrophes (e.g. wenns, aufm, gehn, geh, geht, entdeckt).

Macedonian

Symbol

’

1. A symbol placed before a syllabic р (r) at the beginning of a word: ’рт, ’рѓа, ’рбет, ’рмба etc.
2. A symbol used to denote the schwa sound in some dialectal words: к’смет.

See also

• ◌́
• ◌̀

Ukrainian

Symbol

’

1. Indicates the non-palatalization of the preceding consonant before a soft vowel.
2. Represents the apostrophe in names transliterated from the Roman alphabet, for example Кот-д’Івуар (Côte d’Ivoire).