Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
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]

Translingual[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

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

Etymology[edit]

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

Punctuation mark[edit]

  1. Used as a quotation mark in some languages.
    1. ‘ ’
    2. ’ ‘
    3. ’ ’
    4. ‚ ’
    5. ‛ ’
  2. (informal) A substitute for the modifying diacritic ⟨ʼ⟩ or ⟨ʹ⟩ used in the International Phonetic Alphabet and other traditions for glottalized or palatalized consonants.
    1. (in transliterated Arabic and Hebrew text) Transliteration of the glottal stop (hamza).
    2. (in transliterated Cyrillic text) Transliteration of the soft sign (ь), indicating palatalization of preceding consonants.
    3. A glottal stop in the orthography of numerous languages of America, Africa, and formerly the Pacific. In most Polynesian languages, the convention has shifted to the okina ⟨ʻ⟩.

See also[edit]

Punctuation

Further reading[edit]

English[edit]

Symbol[edit]

  1. Indicating a possessive, with s (’s).
  2. Indicating the omission of letters.
    tho, theyll, 65, ospital

Usage notes[edit]

  • When indicating a possessive and omission of letters, this symbol is called an apostrophe.

Belarusian[edit]

Symbol[edit]

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

Finnish[edit]

Symbol[edit]

  1. Alternative spelling of

Usage notes[edit]

See the usage notes under the entry.

German[edit]

Symbol[edit]

  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[edit]

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

Macedonian[edit]

Symbol[edit]

  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[edit]

Ukrainian[edit]

Symbol[edit]

  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).