'

' U+0027, ' APOSTROPHE ← & Basic Latin ( →

Translingual

Punctuation mark

'

1. An ASCII substitute for 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)
   6. ꞌ (saltillo)

Related terms

• (diacritical mark): ", :

Diacritical mark

'

1. An ASCII substitute for 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. An ASCII substitute for 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. An ASCII substitute for the foot (length unit symbol).
4. (mathematics) An ASCII substitute for ′ (prime symbol).
5. (time, angles) An ASCII substitute for 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

English

Particle

’

1. See -'.

Chinese

Punctuation mark

'

1. sed 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.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

• Never pronounced.
• When the final -o is replaced by an apostrophe, the word is stressed in the syllable that was the penultimate before the omission, thus the new final syllable.
• Almost exclusively used in poetry and proverbs. In ordinary language it is barely used, and many Esperantists might even not understand it.
• The apostrophe itself is sometime omitted by some poets, but this is considered non-standard and may create confusion.

Finnish

Symbol

’]]

1. Indicates a syllable break in words, mostly as a result of consonant gradation.

   liu’uttaa

2. Used to separate the inflectional ending from unadapted borrowings, chiefly when the borrowing ends in a silent consonant.
3. Used to signify omission or dropping of sounds.
   1. Representing apocope found in poetic text.

      sua palvon ain’]]

   2. (dated]) Representing sounds elided as part of contractions.

      yht’äkkiä]]

   3. In some linguistic and grammatical sources, equivalent to ˣ.

Usage notes

• More properly encoded as ’ (U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK), but ' (U+0027 APOSTROPHE) is ubiquitous in computing for technical reasons and also used on Wiktionary for normalization purposes.
• Called heittomerkki.
• When used to represent a syllable break, the apostrophe is omitted if the word is hyphenated at the syllable break (liu’uttaa → liu-uttaa). It is however included in the other two cases.

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 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")