'

See also: ˈ [U+02C8 MODIFIER LETTER VERTICAL LINE], ‘ [U+2018 LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK], ’ [U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK], ʻ [U+02BB MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA], ʹ [U+02B9 MODIFIER LETTER PRIME], -', and ' '

' U+0027, ' APOSTROPHE ← & [U+0026] Basic Latin ( → [U+0028]

＇ U+FF07, ＇ FULLWIDTH APOSTROPHE ← ＆ [U+FF06] Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms （ → [U+FF08]

Translingual

Punctuation mark

'

1. Any of multiple characters with a similar shape:
   1. ’ (apostrophe)
   2. ‛ (leading apostrophe)
   3. A quotation mark, in some languages: see ' '.
   4. (IPA) ˈ (primary stress)
   5. ׳‎ (Hebrew geresh)

Related terms

• (diacritical mark): ", :

Diacritical mark

'

1. Any of multiple characters with a similar shape.
   1. ׳‎ (Hebrew geresh)
   2. (IPA) ʼ (ejective consonant)
   3. Used after a letter as a nonstandard representation of an acute or grave accent, when technical limitations prevent the use of one.
      • For quotations using this term, see Citations:cafe'.
      • For quotations using this term, see Citations:caffe'.

Letter

'

1. A letter representing a glottal stop, or glottalization:
   1. ' or ʼ (compare ˀ, ˁ, ʿ, and ʾ)
   2. ꞌ (the saltillo, used in some languages of Mexico and Guatemala to represent either a glottal stop or a fricative sound).
   3. ʻ (the Hawaiian okina).

See also

• (Latin-script letters) A a (Ā ā), E e (Ē ē), I i (Ī ī), O o (Ō ō), U u (Ū ū), H h, K k, L l, M m, N n, P p, W w, ʻ

Symbol

’

1. Replaces one or more letters which have been removed from a written word, often but not always because they are not being pronounced.

   English: don't, y' , o'er (over), fo'c's'le (forecastle), tho' (though), cont'd (continued); German: Leut' (Leute)

   1. Replaces letter(s) when two or more words are contracted into one word.

      English: I'm (I am), wouldn't've (would not have); French: qu'il (que il), à c't'heure (à cette heure); German: gibt's (gibt es), auf'm (auf dem)

2. Similarly replaces one or more numbers which have been removed.

   '95 (1995)

3. ', the foot (length unit symbol).
4. (mathematics) ′ (prime symbol).
5. (time, angles) The symbol representing the minute, placed after the value of the seconds in a term to indicate minutes count.
6. (grammar) Alternative form of ¯

Coordinate terms

• (time): "
• (angles): ", °

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)

English

Particle

’

1. See -'.

Chinese

Punctuation mark

'

1. Used to mark an initial a, e, or o in a multisyllabic Pinyin word, to prevent confusion (隔音符號／隔音符号 (géyīn fúhào)).

   普洱 ― pǔ'ěr ― pu'er tea (named for a city in Yunnan, China)

Esperanto

Punctuation mark

'

1. (chiefly poetic) Used to indicate omission of the a in la to form l'.
2. (chiefly poetic) Used to indicate omission of the final -o of nominative singular nouns.
   • 1891, L. L. Zamenhof, "La Espero":

     al la mond' eterne militanta ĝi promesas sanktan harmonion.

Finnish

Symbol

'

1. Alternative spelling of ’

Usage notes

Very common in computing, including online texts.

Polish

Alternative forms

• ’

Punctuation mark

'

1. Put before the declension suffix of a foreign name, if the preceding letter is silent.

   Harry'ego /xaˈrɛ.ɡɔ/ — genitive case of Harry

   Georges'em /ˈʐɔr.ʐɛm/ — instrumental case of Georges

Further reading

• ' in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• ' in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Scots

Symbol

’

1. Replaces one or more letters which have been removed from a word.

   eneu' (eneuch, "enough"), lea' (leave, "leave")

2. The apologetic apostrophe: inserted into a Scots word to give the appearance that it is a contraction of an English word.

   de'il (deil, "devil")

Somali

Pronunciation

• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /ʔ/
• (letter name): IPA^(key): /alef/

Letter

' upper case (lower case ')

1. The first letter of the Somali alphabet, called alef and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

• This is the first letter of the Somali alphabet, which follows Arabic abjad order. It is followed by B. It is rarely used in the initial position.

See also

• (Latin-script letters) ', B b, T t, J j, X x, Kh kh, D d, R r, S s, Sh sh, Dh dh, C c, G g, F f, Q q, K k, L l, M m, N n, W w, H h, Y y, A a, E e, I i, O o, U u