U+2018, ‘
LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK

[U+2017]
General Punctuation
[U+2019]

U+2019, ’
RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK

[U+2018]
General Punctuation
[U+201A]
See also: “ ” and ' '

Translingual

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Etymology

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A British substitute for « », which were not widely available in metal type when quotation marks were introduced from France.

Punctuation mark

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  1. Encloses a quotation in some languages.

Quotations

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For quotations using this term, see Citations:‘ ’.

Derivations

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See also

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English

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Punctuation mark

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  1. Encloses a quotation, title, ironic comment (scare quotes), nickname, gloss, or the mention of a word (e.g. cheese’ derives from Old English ċīese.).
    See " " for a fuller list of usage.

Usage notes

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For simple quotations, ‘ ’ are used in Britain while “ ” are used in the United States. With nested quotations, British usage tends to be ‘ ’ for the outer set of marks and “ ” for the inner (embedded) quotation or mention, while American usage is the opposite, though there is variation in British usage. Regardless, usage switches back and forth between single and double quotation marks if there is further embedding.

With multi-paragraph quotations, the opening mark is used for each paragraph, but the closing mark only for the final paragraph.

Words, titles and sometimes quoted passages may be set in italic typeface rather than set off with quotation marks.

Chinese

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Punctuation mark

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  1. (Mainland China, horizontal writing) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation. The outer quotation is enclosed with “ ”.

Usage notes

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With vertical text, 「 」 is used.

In Taiwan, 『 』 is used for both vertical and horizontal text.

Hindi

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Punctuation mark

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  1. Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation.

Usage notes

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The languages of India, including Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu, follow the American-English convention of “ ” for a simple or embedding quotation and ‘ ’ for an embedded quotation.

Portuguese

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Punctuation mark

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  1. (Brazil) Encloses an embedded (inner) quotation.
  2. (Portugal) Encloses a doubly embedded quotation.

Usage notes

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Brazil follows American usage of “ ” for a simple or outer quotation, and ‘ ’ for an embedded quotation.

Portugal follows French usage of « » for a simple or outer quotation, “ ” for an embedded quotation, and ‘ ’ for a doubly embedded quotation or mention, thus: « ... “ ... ‘ ... ’ ... ” ... ».