The 'apostrophe' (
’ or ' ) is a
punctuation mark, and sometimes a
diacritic mark, in
languages written in the
Latin alphabet. In
English, it has two main functions: it marks omissions; and it assists in marking the possessives of all nouns and many pronouns. (In strictly limited cases, it is sometimes also allowed to assist in marking plurals, but most authorities are now against such usage; see
below.) According to the
OED, the word comes ultimately from
Greek ἡ ἀπόστροφος [προσῳδία] (''hē apóstrophos'' [''prosōidía''], ''the'' [''accent of''] ''“turning away”, or elision''), through
Latin and
French.
[1]
The apostrophe should not be confused with the right closing single
quotation mark (usually rendered identically but serving a quite different purpose), or with the similar-looking
prime (which is used to indicate measurement in
feet or
arcminutes, or for various mathematical purposes).
English language usage
Possessive apostrophe
An apostrophe is used to indicate possession.
★ For most singular nouns, the ending ''
’s'' is added, e.g. ''the cat’s whiskers''.
★ When the noun is a normal plural with an added ''s'', no extra ''s'' is added in the possessive, so ''pens' lids'' (where there is more than one pen) is correct rather than ''pens's lids''. If the plural is not one that is formed by adding ''s'', add an ''s'' for the possessive, ''after'' the apostrophe: ''children's hats'', ''women's hairdresser'', ''some people's eyes'' (but compare ''some peoples' recent emergence into nationhood'', where ''peoples'' is meant as the plural of the singular ''people''). These principles are universally accepted.
★ If the word ends in an ''s'' but is singular, practice varies as to whether to add ''
's'' or only an apostrophe. (For discussion on this and the following points, see below.) In general, a good practice is to follow whichever spoken form is judged best: ''Boss's shoes'', ''Mrs. Jones' hat'' (or ''Mrs. Jones's hat'', if that spoken form is preferred). In many cases, both spoken and written forms will differ between people.
★ Some people like to reflect standard spoken practice in special cases like these: ''for convenience' sake'', ''for goodness' sake'', ''for appearance' sake'', etc. Others prefer to add ''
's'' in the standard way: ''for convenience's sake''.
[2] Still others prefer to omit the apostrophe when there is an ''s'' sound before ''sake'': ''for morality's sake'', but ''for convenience sake''.
★ Compound nouns have their singular possessives formed with an apostrophe and an ''s'' at their end, in accordance with the rules given above: ''the Attorney-General's husband''; ''the Minister for Justice's religion''; ''her father-in-law's new wife''. In the examples just given, the plurals are formed with an ''s'' that does not occur at the end: ''Attorneys-General'', etc. An interesting problem therefore arises with the ''possessive'' plurals of these compounds. Sources that rule on the matter appear to favour the following forms, in which there is both an ''s'' added to form the plural, and a separate ''s'' added for the possessive: ''the Attorneys-General's husbands''; ''the Ministers for Justice's religions''; ''their fathers-in-law's new wives''.
[3][4]
An apostrophe
★ An apostrophe is used in time and money references in constructions such as ''one hour's respite'', ''two weeks' holiday'', ''a dollar's worth'', ''five pounds' worth''. Although it may not be immediately obvious, this is an ordinary possessive use. For example, ''one hour's respite'' means ''a respite of one hour'' (exactly as ''the cat's whiskers'' means ''the whiskers of the cat'').
★ No apostrophe is used in the following possessive pronouns and adjectives: ''yours'', ''his'', ''hers'', ''ours'', ''its'', ''theirs'', and ''whose''. (Many people wrongly use ''it's'' for the possessive of ''it''; but authorities are unanimous that ''it's'' can only properly be a contraction of ''it is'' or ''it has''.) All other possessive pronouns ending in ''s'' do take an apostrophe: ''one's''; ''everyone's''; ''somebody's'', ''nobody else's'', etc. With plural forms, the apostrophe follows the ''s'', as with nouns: ''the others' husbands'' (but compare ''They all looked at each other's husbands'', in which both ''each'' and ''other'' are singular).
To illustrate that possessive apostrophes matter, and that their usage affects the meaning of written English, consider these four phrases (listed in
Steven Pinker's ''
The Language Instinct''), each of which has a meaning distinct from the others:
★ my sister's friend's investments ''(I have one sister and she has one friend.)''
★ my sisters' friends' investments ''(I have many sisters and they have many friends.)''
★ my sisters' friend's investments ''(I have many sisters and they have one friend.)''
★ my sister's friends' investments ''(I have one sister and she has many friends.)''
Kingsley Amis, on being challenged to produce a sentence whose meaning depended on a possessive apostrophe, came up with:
★ “Those things over there are my husbands.” ''(I'm married to those men over there.)''
★ “Those things over there are my husband's.” (''Those things over there belong to my husband''.)
Origins
The use of the apostrophe to mark the English possessive ultimately derives from the
Old English genitive case, indicating possession, which often ended in the letters ''-es'', which evolved into a simple ''s'' for the possessive ending. An apostrophe was later added to mark the omitted ''e''; this came into general use in the 17th century. The ''
's'' ending is sometimes called the
Saxon genitive, although linguists now generally consider it a
clitic rather than a
case ending.
Singular nouns ending in ''s'', ''z'', or ''x''
Respected sources require that almost all singular nouns, including those ending in ''s'', ''z'', or ''x'', have possessive forms with an extra ''s'' after the apostrophe. Examples include the
Modern Language Association, ''
The Elements of Style'',
The Economist, and
Purdue University's Online Writing Lab. Such sources would demand possessive singulars like these: ''Senator Jones's umbrella''; ''Mephistopheles's cat''.
Rules that modify or extend this principle have included the following:
★ If the singular possessive is difficult or awkward to pronounce with an added ''s'' sound, do not add an extra ''s''; these exceptions are supported by
University of Delaware,
The Guardian,
Emory University's writing center, and
''The American Heritage Book of English Usage''. Such sources permit possessive singulars like these: ''Socrates' later suggestion''; ''James's house'', or ''James' house'', depending on which pronunciation is intended.
★ Classical, biblical, and similar names ending in an ''s'' sound, especially if they are
polysyllabic, do not take an added ''s'' in the possessive; among sources giving exceptions of this kind are
''The Times'' and ''The Elements of Style'', which make general stipulations, and
Vanderbilt University, which mentions only ''Moses'' and ''Jesus''. As a particular case, ''
Jesus''' is very commonly written instead of ''Jesus’s'', even by people who would otherwise add ''
's'' in, for example, ''James's'' or ''Chris's''; ''Jesus
''' is referred to as “an accepted liturgical archaism” in ''
Hart's Rules''. See
Possessive of Jesus.
Similar examples of notable names ending in an ''s'' that are often given a possessive apostrophe with no additional ''s'' include ''Dickens'' and ''Williams''. There is often a policy of leaving off the additional ''s'' on any such name, but this can prove problematic when specific names are contradictory (for example, ''
St James' Park'' in
Newcastle [the football ground] and the area of ''
St. James's Park'' in London). For more details on practice with geographic names, see the relevant section
below.
The English possessive of French names ending in a silent ''s'' is rendered differently by different authorities. Some prefer ''Descartes
''' and ''Dumas
''', while others insist on ''Descartes's'' and ''Dumas's''. Certainly an ''s'' sound (or strictly a ''z'' sound, with ''Dumas'') is pronounced in these cases; the theoretical question is whether the existing ''s'' is the one that is sounded, or whether another ''s'' needs to be supplied. A similar problem arises with French names ending in silent ''x''. Many authorities prescribe possessives with an added ''s'': ''Sauce Périgueux's main ingredient is truffle''; but an apostrophe alone is also acceptable. For possessive plurals of words ending in silent ''x'' or ''s'', the few authorities that address the issue at all call for an added ''s'', and require that the apostrophe precede the ''s'': ''The Loucheux's homeland is in the Yukon''; ''Compare the two Dumas's literary achievements''. As usual in punctuation, the best advice is to respect soundly established practice, and beyond that to strive for simplicity, logic, and especially consistency.
Possessives in geographic names
United States place names generally do not use the possessive apostrophe. The
United States Board on Geographic Names, which has responsibility for formal naming of municipalities and geographic features, has deprecated the use of possessive apostrophes since 1890. Only five names of natural features in the U.S. are officially spelled with a genitive apostrophe (one example being
Martha's Vineyard). On the other hand, Britain has
Bishop's Stortford,
Bishop's Castle and
King's Lynn (but
St Albans,
St Andrews and
St Helens) and, while
Newcastle United play at
St James' Park, and
Exeter City at
St James Park,
London has a
St James's Park (this whole area of London is named after
St James's Church, Piccadilly[5]). The special circumstances of the latter case may be this: the customary pronunciation of this place name is reflected in the addition of an extra ''-s''; since usage is firmly against a doubling of the final ''-s'' without an apostrophe, this place name has an apostrophe. This could be regarded as an example of a double genitive: it refers to the park ''of'' the church ''of'' St James. None of this detracts from the fact that omission of the apostrophe in geographical names is becoming a clear standard in most English-speaking countries, including Britain and Australia.
Possessives in business names
Where a business name is based on a family name, it may or may not take an apostrophe (compare ''
Sainsbury's'' and ''
Harrods''), though in recent times there has been an increasing tendency to drop the apostrophe. Names based on a first name are more likely to take an apostrophe (''Joe's Crab Shack''). The Apostrophe Protection Society has campaigned for large retailers such as Harrods,
Currys and
Selfridges to reinstate their missing punctuation. A spokesperson for
Barclays plc stated, “It has just disappeared over the years. Barclays is no longer associated with the family name.”
[6]
Apostrophe showing omission
An apostrophe is commonly used to indicate omitted characters:
★ It is used in
contractions, such as ''can't'' from ''cannot'', ''it's'' from ''it is'' or ''it has'', and ''I'll'' from ''I will'' or ''I shall''.
:
★ The word ''fo'c's'le'' is notable in English for having three apostrophes; the alternative spelling without omissions is “forecastle”.
★ It is used in
abbreviations, as ''gov't'' for ''government'', or '' '70s'' for ''1970s''. In modern usage, apostrophes are generally omitted when letters are removed from the start of a word. For example, it is not common to write '' 'bus'' (for ''omnibus''), '' 'phone'' (''telephone''), '' 'net'' (''Internet''). However, if the shortening is unusual, dialectal or archaic, the apostrophe may still be used to mark it (e.g., '' 'bout'' for ''about'', '' 'less'' for ''unless'', '' 'twas'' for ''it was''). Sometimes a misunderstanding of the original form of a word results in an incorrect contraction. A common example: '' 'til'' for ''until'', though ''till'' is in fact the original form, and ''until'' is derived from it.
★ It is sometimes used when the normal form of an inflection seems awkward or unnatural; for example, ''KO'd'' rather than ''KOed'' (where ''KO'' is used as a verb meaning “to knock out”), or ''n'th'' (an unspecified
ordinal) rather than ''nth''.
★ In certain colloquial contexts an apostrophe's function as possessive or contractive can depend on other punctuation.
:
★ We rehearsed for Friday's opening night. (''We rehearsed for the opening night on Friday.'')
:
★ We rehearsed, for Friday's opening night. (''We rehearsed because Friday is opening night.'')
Use in forming certain plurals
An apostrophe is used by some writers to form a
plural for abbreviations,
acronyms, and symbols where adding just ''s'' rather than 's'' may leave things ambiguous or inelegant. While
British English formerly endorsed the use of such apostrophes after numbers and dates, this usage has now largely been superseded. Some specific cases:
★ It is generally acceptable to use apostrophes to show plurals of single lower-case letters, such as ''be sure to dot your i's and cross your t's''. Some style guides would prefer to use a change of font: ''dot your'' i''s and cross your'' t''s.'' Upper case letters need no apostrophe as there is no risk of misreading: ''I got three As in my exams.''
[7]
★ For groups of years, the apostrophe at the end cannot be regarded as necessary, since there is no possibility of misreading. For this reason, most authorities prefer ''1960s'' to ''1960's''
(although the latter is noted by at least one source as acceptable in American usage),
[8] and ''90s'' or'' '90s'' to'' 90's'' or '90's''.
★ The apostrophe is sometimes used in forming the plural of numbers (for example, ''1000's of years''); however, as with groups of years, it is unnecessary: there is no possibility of misreading. Most sources are against this usage.
★ The apostrophe is often used in plurals of symbols. Again, since there can be no misreading, this is also wrong.
''That page has too many &s and #s on it.''
★ Finally, a few sources accept its use in an alternative spelling of the plurals of a very few short words, such as ''do'', ''ex'', ''yes'', ''no'', which become ''do's'', ''ex's'', etc.
[9] In each case, ''dos'', ''exes'', ''yeses'' (or ''yesses'') and ''noes'' would be preferred by most authorities. Nevertheless, many writers are still inclined to use such an apostrophe when the word is thought to look awkward or unusual without one.
Use in non-English names
★ Irish surnames often contain an apostrophe after an ''O'', for example ''O'Reilly''. This arose from a rendering of the
Irish ''Ó''.
★ Some
Scottish and
Irish surnames use an apostrophe after an ''M'', for example ''M'Gregor''. The apostrophe here may be seen as marking a contraction where the prefix ''Mc'' or ''
Mac'' would normally appear. (Note, however, that in earlier and meticulous current usage, it is
‘ – a kind of reversed apostrophe that is sometimes called a ''turned comma'', which eventually came to be written as the letter ''c'', whose shape is similar.)
★
French and
Italian surnames sometimes contain apostrophes, e.g. ''D'Angelo''.
★ In
science fiction, the apostrophe is often used to decorate alien names.
Non-standard English use
Greengrocers’ apostrophes
Sign to Green Craigs housing development.
Apostrophes used incorrectly to form plurals are known as ''greengrocers’ apostrophes'' (or ''grocers’ apostrophes'', or sometimes humorously ''greengrocers apostrophe’s''). The practice comes from the identical sound of the plural and possessive forms of most English
nouns. It is often considered a form of
hypercorrection coming from a widespread ignorance of the proper use of the apostrophe or of punctuation in general. Lynne Truss, author of ''
Eats, Shoots & Leaves'', points out that before the 19th Century, it was standard orthography to use the apostrophe to form a plural of a foreign-sounding word that ended in a vowel (e.g. banana’s, folio’s, logo’s, quarto’s, pasta’s, ouzo’s) to clarify pronunciation. Truss says this usage is no longer considered proper in formal writing.
[10]
It is believed that the term was first coined in the middle of the twentieth century by a teacher of languages working in
Liverpool, at a time when such mistakes were common in the handwritten signs and advertisements of
greengrocers, e.g., “Apple’s
1/- a pound, orange’s 1/6
d a pound”. In recent years, this misuse has become increasingly frequent in other forms of advertisement, particularly those of small businesses, e.g., from Hackney Market in London: “Christmas Card’s”. Some have argued that its use in mass communication by employees of well-known companies has led to the less grammatically able assuming it to be correct and adopting the habit themselves.
[11]
The same error is sometimes made by non-native speakers of English, and this
hyperforeignism has been formalised in some pseudo-
anglicisms. For example, the
French word (from English ''pin'') is used (with the apostrophe in both singular and plural) for
collectible lapel pins. Also, there is an
Andorran
football club called
FC Rànger's (after such British clubs as
Rangers F.C.).
The widespread use of apostrophes before the “s” of plural nouns has led some to believe that an apostrophe is also needed before the “s” of the third-person present tense of a verb. Thus, “he take’s”, “it begin’s” etc.
Incorrectly used apostrophes are also often referred to as rogue apostrophes.
Omitting the apostrophe
While the greengrocers' apostrophe is more likely to be found within small businesses, the UK's largest supermarket chain,
Tesco, has a habit of omitting the mark where it should be included. Its in-store signage advertises (among other items) “mens magazines”, “girls toys”, “kids books” and “womens shoes”. The author
Bill Bryson lambasts Tesco for this reason in his book ''
Troublesome Words'', stating, “The mistake is inexcusable and those who make it are linguistic Neanderthals.”
George Bernard Shaw, a proponent of English
spelling reform on phonetic principles, argued that the apostrophe was mostly redundant. He did not use it for spelling “cant” or “hes” when writing ''
Pygmalion''. He did however allow “I'm” and “it's”.
[12] Lewis Carroll made greater use of apostrophes, and frequently used “ca'n't” and “sha'n't”.
[13] Neither author's use has become widespread.
Other misuses
The British pop group
Hear'Say famously made unconventional use of an apostrophe in its name. In her book ''Eats, Shoots & Leaves'', Lynne Truss states that “the naming of Hear'Say in 2001 was […] a significant milestone on the road to punctuation anarchy.”
Other languages
As a mark of elision
In many languages, especially European languages, the apostrophe is used to indicate the
elision of one or more sounds, as in English. For example:
★ In
Afrikaans the apostrophe is used to show that letters have been omitted from words. The most common use is in the indefinite article ''
'n'' which is a contraction of ''een'' meaning 'one' (the number). As the initial 'e' is omitted and cannot be capitalised, if a sentence begins with ''
'n'' the second word in the sentence is capitalised. For example: ''
'n Boek is groen'', “A book is green.”
★ In
Danish and
Norwegian, where some very common words have a pronunciation that does not match the spelling, use of the written apostrophe is informal, yet very popular in all kinds of
commercial materials. Thus, one might commonly see ''Ta' mig med'' (“Take me with [you]”) next to a stand with advertisement leaflets; that would be written ''Tag mig med'' in standard orthography. As in German, the apostrophe must not be used to indicate the possessive, except when there is already an ''s'' present in the base form, as in ''Lukas' bog''.
★ In the
Dutch language, the apostrophe is again used to indicate omitted characters. For example, the indefinite article ''een'' can be shortened to '' 'n'', and the definite article ''het'' shortened to ''
't''. When this happens with the first word of a sentence, only the ''second'' word of the sentence is capitalised. In general, this way of using the apostrophe is considered non-standard, except for ''
's morgens'', ''
's middags'', ''
's avonds'', ''
's nachts'' (des morgens/middags/avonds/nachts: at morning/afternoon/evening/night). In addition, the apostrophe is used for plurals where the singulars end with certain
vowels, e.g. ''foto's'', ''taxi's'', and for the genitive of proper names ending with these vowels, e.g. ''Anna's'', ''Otto's''. These are in fact elided vowels; use of the apostrophe prevents spellings like ''fotoos'' and ''Annaas.''
★ In
French phrases such as ''
coup d'état'' and ''
maître d'hôtel'' (the latter often shortened to ''maître d', when used by English speakers), the vowel in the preposition ''de'' (of) is elided because the word which follows it also starts with a vowel, or a silent consonant followed by a vowel. Similarly, French has ''l'église'' for ''la église'' (“the church”), ''qu'il'' for ''que il'' (“that he”), and so on. A notable exception to this is ''mon amie'': ''amie'' is the feminine form of the noun meaning "friend" but in all cases it is written with the masculine possessive ''mon''. Thus ''m'amie'' as a contraction of the potential ''ma amie'' is not used. Analogous constructions are also common in
Italian and
Catalan.
★
German usage is very similar: an apostrophe is used almost exclusively to indicate omitted letters. It must not be used for plurals or most of the possessive forms (''Max' Vater'' being an exception, for instance), both of which usages are widespread, but deemed wrong. (See article in the German Wikipedia.)
To separate morphemes
Some languages use the apostrophe to separate the
root of a word from its
affixes, especially if the root is a foreign, unassimilated word.
★ In
Danish, an apostrophe is sometimes used to join the
enclitic definite article to words of foreign origin, or other words which would otherwise look awkward. Thus, one would write ''IP'en'' to mean “the
IP address”. There is some variation in what is considered “awkward enough” to warrant an apostrophe; for instance, long-established words such as ''firma'' (company) or ''niveau'' (level) might be written ''firma'et'' and ''niveau'et'', but will generally be seen without an apostrophe.
★ In
Estonian, apostrophes can be used in the declension of some foreign names to separate the stem from any
declension endings; e.g., ''Monet' '' or ''Monet'sse'' for the
genitive case and
illative case, respectively, for (the famous painter) “Monet”.
★ In
Polish, the apostrophe is used exclusively for marking inflections of words and word-like elements (e.g.
acronyms) whose spelling conflicts with the normal rules that govern which inflection form to choose. This mainly affects foreign words and names. Thus, for instance, one would write ''Kampania Ala Gore'a'' for “
Al Gore's campaign”. In this example, “Ala” is spelt without an apostrophe, as its spelling and pronunciation fit into normal Polish rules. “Gore'a”, however, needs it, as “e” disappears from the pronunciation, changing its inflection pattern. There is a widespread misunderstanding of this rule, which would rather have apostrophe after all ''foreign'' words, regardless of their pronunciation, thus rendering the above into (incorrect) ''Kampania Al'a Gore'a''. This effect is somewhat akin to the greengrocers' apostrophes (see above).
★ In
Turkish,
proper nouns are capitalized and an apostrophe is inserted between the noun and any following
suffix, e.g. ''New York'da'', “in New York”, in contrast with ''okulda'', “in the school”.
As a mark of palatalization
Some languages and
transliteration systems use the apostrophe to mark the presence, or the lack of
palatalization.
★ In the
Belarusian and
Ukrainian languages, the apostrophe is used between a consonant and the following “soft” (
iotified) vowel (е, ё, є, ю, я) to indicate that ''no'' palatalization of the preceding consonant takes place, and the vowel is pronounced in the same way as at the beginning of the word. The same function is served by the
hard sign in some other Cyrillic alphabets.
★ In some transliterations from the
Cyrillic alphabet (of
Belarusian,
Russian, or
Ukrainian language), the apostrophe is used to replace the
soft sign (ь, indicating palatalization of the preceding consonant), e.g., ''Русь'' is transliterated ''
Rus''' according to the
BGN/PCGN system. Confusingly, some of these transliteration schemes use a double apostrophe ( ˮ ) to represent the apostrophe in Cyrillic text, e.g. Ukrainian ''слов'янське'' (“Slavic”) is transliterated as ''slovˮyans'ke''.
★ Some
Karelian orthographies use an apostrophe to indicate palatalization, e.g. ''n'evvuo'' “to give advice”, ''d'uuri'' “just (like)”, ''el'vüttiä'' “to revive”.
As a glottal stop
Other languages and transliteration systems use the apostrophe as a letter, denoting the
glottal stop.
★
Guarani, where it is called ''puso'' , as in the words ''ñe'ẽ'', ''ka'a'', ''a' ỹ''.
★
Hawaiian, the ''
'' (), an inverted apostrophe, is often rendered as ('). It is considered a letter of the alphabet.
★ In the
Tongan language, the apostrophe is called a ''faka'ua'' and is the last letter of the alphabet. It is used to represent the glottal stop.
★ Various other
Austronesian languages, such as
Samoan,
Tahitian and
Chamorro.
★
Tetum, one of the official languages of
East Timor.
★ The
Brazilian native
Tupi language.
★
Mayan.
★ The constructed
Klingon language.
The apostrophe represents sounds similar to the glottal stop in the
Turkic languages and in
romanizations of
Arabic. Sometimes this function is performed by the opening single
quotation mark.
Other uses
★ In the
Czech and
Slovak languages, common typographic rendering (at least for some typefaces) of
caron over lowercase t, d, l, and uppercase L
consonants (ď, ť, ľ, Ľ) looks a lot like an apostrophe, but it is incorrect to use apostrophe instead (compare previous example with incorrect d', t', l', L' or d', t', l', L'). In Slovak, there is also l with acute accent (ĺ, Ĺ). In Slovak, it is used to indicate
elision in certain words (''tys' as an abbreviated form of ''ty si''), however, these elisions are restricted to poetry.
★ In
Finnish, one of the
consonant gradation patterns is the change of a 'k' into a
hiatus, e.g. ''keko → keon'' “a pile → pile's”. This hiatus has to be indicated in spelling with an apostrophe, if a long vowel or a diphthong would be immediately followed by the final vowel, e.g. ''ruoko → ruo'on'', ''vaaka → vaa'an''. (This is in contrast to compound words, where the same problem is solved with a
hyphen, e.g. ''maa-ala'' “land area”.) The same meaning for an apostrophe, a
hiatus, is used in poetry to indicate contractions, e.g. ''miss' on'' for ''missä on'' “where is”.
★ In the
Breton language, the combination ''c'h'' is used for the sound as English “Loch Ness” whereas ''ch'' denotes the sound as in French or as in English “chic” or “Chicago”.
★ In
Swahili, an apostrophe after ''ng'' says that the g-sound after the sound is not audible, that is, that the ''ng'' is pronounced as in English “singer”, not as in English “finger”.
★ In
Jèrriais, one of the uses of the apostrophe is to mark
gemination, or consonant length. For example, ''t't'' represents , ''s's'' , ''n'n'' , ''th'th'' , and ''ch'ch'' (as contrasted to , , , , and ).
★ In the
Hànyǔ Pīnyīn system of
romanization for
Standard Mandarin (the main Chinese language), the apostrophe is sometimes used to separate syllables in a word where ambiguity could arise. Example: the standard romanization for the name of the city
Xi'an includes an apostrophe to distinguish it from a single-syllable word ''xian''.
★ In
Hebrew, the apostrophe is used to modify letters to make sounds that Hebrew has no letters for. Sounds such as “j”, “th”, and “ch” are made from ג, ת, and צ with an apostrophe (or chupchik). Thus, the name Jarred can be spelled ג'רד in Hebrew.
★ In the new
Uzbek Latin alphabet adopted in 2000, the apostrophe serves as a
diacritical mark to distinguish different phonemes written with the same letter: it differentiates ''o’'' (corresponding to Cyrillic ''
ў'') from ''o'', and ''g’'' (Cyrillic ''
ғ'') from ''g''. This avoids the use of special characters, allowing Uzbek to be typed with ease in ordinary
ASCII on any Latin keyboard. In addition, a postvocalic apostrophe in Uzbek represents the glottal stop phoneme derived from Arabic ''
hamzah'' or ''
‘ayn'', replacing Cyrillic ''
ъ''.
Typographic form
The form of the apostrophe originates in
manuscript writing, as a point with a downwards tail curving clockwise. This form was inherited by the typographic (or
typeset) apostrophe (
’ ), also called the “curly apostrophe”. Later
sans-serif typefaces had stylized apostrophes with a more geometric or simplified form, but usually retaining the same directional bias as a closing quotation mark.
With the invention of the
typewriter, a “neutral” quotation mark form ( ' ) was created to economize on the keyboard, by using a single key to represent the apostrophe, both opening and closing single
quotation marks, and single
primes. This is known as the “typewriter apostrophe” or “vertical apostrophe”.
Computing
Typewriter apostrophe and ASCII encoding
The typewriter apostrophe ( ' ) was inherited by computer keyboards, and is the only apostrophe
character available in the (7-bit)
ASCII character encoding, which is the original basis for the computer representation of the
Latin alphabet.
As such, it is a highly overloaded character. In ASCII, it represents a right single quotation mark, left single quotation mark, apostrophe, vertical line or prime (punctuation marks), or an apostrophe modifier or acute accent (modifier letters). (The separate ASCII
grave accent ( ` ), intended as a modifier and assigned its own key on many keyboards, has sometimes found a non-standard role as a single opening quote.)
Typographic apostrophe and 8-bit encodings
Support for the typographic apostrophe (
’ ) was introduced in a variety of 8-bit character encodings, such as the
Apple Macintosh operating system's
Mac Roman character set (in 1984), and later in the
CP1252 encoding of
Microsoft Windows.
Older 8-bit character encodings, like Windows CP1252, Mac Roman or
ISO-8859-1, universally support the typewriter quote in the same position, 39, inherited from ASCII (as does Unicode; see below). However, most of them place the typographic apostrophe in different positions. ISO-8859-1, a common encoding used for web pages, omits the typographic apostrophe altogether.
Microsoft Windows CP1252 (sometimes incorrectly called ''ANSI'' or ''ISO-Latin'') is a duplicate of ISO-8859-1, with 27 additional characters in the place of control characters (in the range from 128 to 159). Microsoft software usually treats ISO-8859-1 as if it were CP1252. The wide adoption of Microsoft's web browser and web server has forced many other software makers to adopt this as a ''de facto'' convention – in some cases contravening established standards unnecessarily (e.g., some applications use CP1252 character values in HTML numeric references, where Unicode values are required, and would be sufficient for interoperation with MS software). Consequently, the typographic apostrophe and several other characters are handled inconsistently by web browsers and other software, and can cause interoperation problems.
Unicode
There are three types of apostrophe character in
Unicode:
★ ( '
'' ) Vertical ''typewriter apostrophe'' (Unicode name “apostrophe” or “apostrophe-quote”), U+0027, inherited from
ASCII.
★ ( '' ) ''Punctuation apostrophe'' (“right single quotation mark” or “single comma quotation mark”), U+2019. Serves as both an apostrophe and closing single quotation mark.
★ ( '' ) ''Letter apostrophe'' (“modifier letter apostrophe”), U+02BC. This is preferred when the apostrophe is not considered punctuation which separates letters, but a letter in its own right. Examples occur in the
Cyrillic Azerbaijani alphabet, or in some
transliterations such as the transliterated Arabic
glottal stop, ''hamza'', or transliterated Cyrillic
soft sign. (The Hawaiian glottal stop, the
okina, has its own Unicode character at U+02BB.) As the letter apostrophe is seldom used in practice, the Unicode standard cautions that one should never assume text is coded thus. The letter apostrophe is rendered identically to the punctuation apostrophe in the Unicode code charts.
[14]
The
Nenets language has single and double letter apostrophes:
★ ( ) ''Double letter apostrophe'' (Unicode name “modifier letter double apostrophe”), U+02EE.
Usage
Historically, the majority of computer users outside the world of professional typesetting and graphic design have tended to use the typewriter quote for an apostrophe. However, because these are now often “transparently” converted to typographic apostrophes by desktop publishing software (see below), the typographic apostrophe does often appear in documents produced by non-professionals.
Because of the egalitarian nature of electronic publishing on the Internet, and the low resolution of computer monitors in comparison to print, typewriter apostrophes have been considered tolerable on Web pages. More recently, due to the wide adoption of the
Unicode text encoding standard, near-universal web browser support, higher-resolution displays, and advanced
anti-aliasing of text in modern operating systems, the use of typographic apostrophes is becoming more common the web. With the spread of
Unicode support in computer operating systems and internet software, the typographic apostrophe can be used nearly anywhere. Nevertheless, the tradition of using the typewriter apostrophe continues in many situations. In particular, it is used in the majority of English Wikipedia articles.
Entering typographic apostrophes
The typographic apostrophe does not have its own key on standard computer keyboards. To make the character easier to enter,
publishing software often converts typewriter apostrophes to typographic apostrophes during text entry (with or without the user being aware of it). A similar facility may be offered on web servers after submitting text in a form field, e.g. on weblogs or free encyclopedias. This is known as the “smart quotes” feature; apostrophes and quotation marks that are not automatically altered by computer programs are known as “dumb quotes”.
Unfortunately, such conversion is not always done in accordance with the standards for character sets and encodings. Additionally, many such software programs incorrectly convert a leading apostrophe to an opening quotation mark (e.g., in abbreviations of years:
‘29 rather than the correct
’29 for 2029). A quick way to get the correct result in
Microsoft Word is to type two apostrophes (sometimes using a space as well, as required), and then simply delete the first. Smart quote features also often fail to recognise situations when a prime rather than an apostrophe is needed; for example, incorrectly rendering the latitude 49° 53′ 08″ as 49° 53
’ 08
”.
On
Microsoft Windows, Unicode special characters can be entered explicitly by holding the ALT key and typing the four-digit decimal code position of the character. An apostrophe is entered by holding
alt while typing
8217 on the numeric keypad (at the right side of a standard keyboard). (Typing a ''three-digit'' code will enter a character value ''in the current
code page'', which may not correspond to its Unicode value.)
On the
Apple Macintosh, special characters are typed while holding down the ''option'' key, or ''option'' and ''shift'' keys together. In Macintosh English-language keyboard layouts, an apostrophe is typed with the shortcut
option-shift-].
References
1. "The English form ''apostrophe'' is due to its adoption via French, and its current pronunciation as four syllables is due to a confusion with the rhetorical device ''apostrophé''” (W. S. Allen, ''Vox Graeca. The pronunciation of classical Greek'', 3rd edition, 1988. Cambridge university press, Cambridge, p. 100, note 13).
2. DummiesWorld Wide Words . ''Chicago Manual of Style'', 7.22: “For… sake expressions traditionally omit the s when the noun ends in an s or an s sound.” ''Oxford Style Manual'', 5.2.1: “Use an apostrophe alone after singular nouns ending in an ''s'' or ''z'' sound and combined with ''sake'': for goodness’ sake…”.
3. ''Style Guide'', US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/bjssg.pdf
4. ''The United States Government Printing Office Style Manual 2000'', http://www.gpoaccess.gov/stylemanual/2000/chapter_txt-8.html
5. St James's Church Piccadilly website
6. Times Online: Harrods told to put its apostrophe back.
7. Purdue University Online Writing Lab: The Apostrophe
8. Guide to Punctuation, Larry Trask, University of Sussex: “American usage, however, does put an apostrophe here: (A) This research was carried out in the 1970's.”
9. AskOxford.com
10. Truss, Lynn. Eats, Shoots & Leaves. pp. 63–5.
11.
12. http://www.wwnorton.com/nto/20century/topic_4/shaw.htm
13. http://www.dace.co.uk/apostrophe.htm
14. Unicode code charts>
Bibliography
★ Gibaldi, Joseph. ''MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers''. New York: Modern Language Association, 2003.
★
Truss, Lynne. ''
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation'', 2003. Gotham Books, Toronto (North American edition). ISBN 1-59240-087-6
See also
★
Caron
★
Possessive case
★
Elision
★
Contraction
External links
★
The apostrophe character Problems representing apostrophes on computers.
★
The Apostrophe Protection Society
★
The Apostrophe Abolition Campaign
★
ASCII and Unicode quotation marks
★
Apostrophe and acute accent confusion
★
Grammar 101: The Apostrophe
★
Apostrophe usage: when do I use the stupid thing's?
★
A cartoon critique of the greengrocers' apostrophe (GIF)
★
ApostropheGuide.com - quick guide to using apostrophes
★
The Dreaded Apostrophe - An approach using a single rule only
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