The apostrophe ( or ) is a

punctuation Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...

mark, and sometimes a

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...

al mark, in languages that use the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...

and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one or more letters, e.g. the

contraction Contraction may refer to: Linguistics * Contraction (grammar), a shortened word * Poetic contraction, omission of letters for poetic reasons * Elision, omission of sounds ** Syncope (phonology), omission of sounds in a word * Synalepha, merged ...

of "do not" to "don't". * The marking of possessive case of nouns (as in "the eagle's feathers", "in one month's time", "at your parents'‌ ome). The word "apostrophe" comes ultimately from Greek (, '

he accent of He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

turning away or elision'), through

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

. For use in computer systems,

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...

has code points for three different forms of apostrophe.

Usage in English

Historical development

The apostrophe was first used by

Pietro Bembo Pietro Bembo, ( la, Petrus Bembus; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was an Italian scholar, poet, and literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller, and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the It ...

in his edition of '' De Aetna'' (1496). It was introduced into English in the 16th century in imitation of French practice.

French practice

Introduced by Geoffroy Tory (1529), the apostrophe was used in place of a vowel letter to indicate

elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...

(as in in place of ). It was also frequently used in place of a final "e" (which was still pronounced at the time) when it was elided before a vowel, as in . Modern French

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...

has restored the spelling .

Early English practice

From the 16th century, following French practice, the apostrophe was used when a vowel letter was omitted either because of incidental

("I'm" for "I am") or because the letter no longer represented a sound ("lov'd" for "loved").

English spelling English orthography is the writing system used to represent spoken English, allowing readers to connect the graphemes to sound and to meaning. It includes English's norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, and p ...

retained many

inflection In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...

s that were not pronounced as

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...

s, notably verb endings ("-est", "-eth", "-es", "-ed") and the noun ending "-es", which marked either plurals or possessives, also known as genitives (see Possessive apostrophe, below). An apostrophe followed by "s" was often used to mark a plural; specifically, the '' Oxford Companion to the English Language'' notes that :There was formerly a respectable tradition (17th to 19th centuries) of using the apostrophe for noun plurals, especially in

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...

s ending in a vowel (as in ... ''Comma's are used'', Philip Luckcombe, 1771) and in the consonants ''s'', ''z'', ''ch'', ''sh'', (as in ''waltz's'' and ''cotillions'',

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...

, 1804)...

Standardisation

The use of

has continued to the present day, but significant changes have been made to the

possessive A possessive or ktetic form (abbreviated or ; from la, possessivus; grc, κτητικός, translit=ktētikós) is a word or grammatical construction used to indicate a relationship of possession in a broad sense. This can include strict owne ...

and

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

uses. By the 18th century, an apostrophe with the addition of an "s" was regularly used for all

singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular homology * SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS) * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, ...

forms, even when the letter "e" was not omitted (as in "the gate's height"). This was regarded as representing not the elision of the "e" in the "-e" or "-es" ending of the word being pluralized, but the elision of the "e" from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

singular

"-es". The plural genitive did not use the "-es" inflection, and since many plural forms already consisted of the "-s" or "-es" ending, using the apostrophe in place of the elisioned "e" could lead to singular and plural possessives of a given word having the exact same spelling. The solution was to use an apostrophe after the

"s" (as in "girls' dresses"). However, this was not universally accepted until the mid-19th century. Plurals not ending in -s keep the -'s marker, such as "children's toys, the men's toilet", since there was no risk of ambiguity.

Possessive apostrophe

The apostrophe is used in English to indicate what is, for historical reasons, misleadingly called the

case in the English language. This case was called the

until the 18th century and, like the genitive case in other languages, expresses relationships other than

possession Possession may refer to: Law * Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance * Drug possession, a crime * Ownership * ...

. For example, in the expressions "the school's headmaster", "the men's department", and "tomorrow's weather", the school does not own/possess the headmaster, men do not own/possess the department, and tomorrow does not/will not own the weather. In the words of

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage ''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'' is a usage dictionary published by Merriam-Webster, Inc., of Springfield, Massachusetts . It is currently available in a reprint edition (1994) or . (The 1989 edition did not include ''Merriam-'' ...

: This dictionary also cites a study that found that only 40% of the possessive forms were used to indicate actual possession. The modern spelling convention distinguishes possessive singular forms ("Bernadette's", "flower's", "glass's", "one's") from simple plural forms ("Bernadettes", "flowers", "glasses", "ones"), and both of those from possessive plural forms ("Bernadettes'", "flowers'", "glasses'", "ones'"). For example, the word "glass's" is the singular possessive form of the noun "glass". The plural form of "glass" is "glasses" and the plural possessive form is, therefore, "glasses'". You would therefore say "I drank the glass's contents" to indicate drinking a drink, but "I drank the glasses' contents" when you've finished your second drink. For singular forms, the modern possessive or

inflection is a survival from certain genitive inflections in Old English, for which the apostrophe originally marked the loss of the old "e" (for example, became ). Until the 18th century, the apostrophe was extensively used to indicate plural forms. Its use for indicating plural "possessive" forms was not standard before the middle of the 19th century.

General principles for the possessive apostrophe

= Summary of rules for most situations

= * Possessive personal pronouns, serving as either noun-equivalents or adjective-equivalents, do not use an apostrophe, even when they end in "s". The complete list of those ending in the letter "s" or the corresponding sound or but not taking an apostrophe is "ours", "yours", "his", "hers", "its", "theirs", and "whose". * Other pronouns, singular nouns not ending in "s", and plural nouns not ending in "s" all take s" in the possessive: e.g., "someone's", "a cat's toys", "women's". * Plural nouns already ending in "s" take only an apostrophe after the pre-existing "s" to form the possessive: e.g., "three cats' toys".

= Basic rule (singular nouns)

= For most singular nouns the ending s" is added; e.g., "the cat's whiskers". *If a singular noun ends with an "s"-sound (spelled with "-s", "-se", for example), practice varies as to whether to add s" or the apostrophe alone. In many cases, both spoken and written forms differ between writers (see details

below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor *Bottom (disambiguation) Bottom may refer to: Anatomy and sex * Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or ...

). * Acronyms and initialisms used as nouns (CD, DVD, NATO, RADAR, etc.) follow the same rules as singular nouns: e.g., "the TV's picture quality".

= Basic rule (plural nouns)

= When the noun is a normal plural, with an added "s", no extra "s" is added in the possessive; so "the neighbours' garden" (there is more than one neighbour owning the garden) is standard rather than "the neighbours's garden". * If the plural is not one that is formed by adding "s", an "s" is added 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. * A few English nouns have plurals that are not spelled with a final "s" but nevertheless end in an /s/ or a /z/ sound: "mice" (plural of "mouse"; also in compounds like " dormouse", "

titmouse ''Baeolophus'' is a genus of birds in the family Paridae. Its members are commonly known as titmice. All the species are native to North America. In the past, most authorities retained ''Baeolophus'' as a subgenus within the genus ''Parus'', bu ...

"), "

dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...

" (when used as the plural of "die"), "pence" (a plural of "penny", with compounds like "sixpence" that now tend to be taken as singulars). In the absence of specific exceptional treatment in style guides, the possessives of these plurals are formed by adding an apostrophe and an "s" in the standard way: "seven titmice's tails were found", "the dice's last fall was a seven", "his few pence's value was not enough to buy bread". These would often be rephrased, where possible: "the last fall of the dice was a seven".

= Basic rule (compound nouns)

= Compound nouns have their singular possessives formed with an apostrophe and an added ''s'', in accordance with the rules given above: ''the Attorney-General's husband''; ''the

Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is a ceremonial official in the United Kingdom. The post dates from at least the 12th century, when the title was Keeper of the Coast, but may be older. The Lord Warden was originally in charge of the Cinqu ...

's prerogative''; ''this Minister for Justice's intervention''; ''her father-in-law's new wife''. *In such examples, the plurals are formed with an ''s'' that does not occur at the end: e.g., ''attorneys-general''. A 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''; ''successive Ministers for Justice's interventions''; ''their fathers-in-law's new wives''. Because these constructions stretch the resources of punctuation beyond comfort, in practice they are normally reworded: ''interventions by successive Ministers for Justice''.

= Joint or separate possession

= For two nouns (or noun phrases) joined by ''and'', there are several ways of expressing possession, including: :1. marking of the last noun (e.g. "Jack and Jill's children") :2. marking of both nouns (e.g. "Jack's and Jill's children"). Some grammars make no distinction in meaning between the two forms. Some publishers' style guides, however, make a distinction, assigning the "segregatory" (or "distributive") meaning to the form "John's and Mary's" and the "combinatorial" (or "joint") meaning to the form "John and Mary's". A third alternative is a construction of the form "Jack's children and Jill's", which is always distributive, i.e. it designates the combined set of Jack's children and Jill's children. When a coordinate possessive construction has two personal pronouns, the normal possessive inflection is used, and there is no apostrophe (e.g., "his and her children"). The issue of the use of the apostrophe arises when the coordinate construction includes a noun (phrase) and a pronoun. In this case, the inflection of only the last item may sometimes be, at least marginally, acceptable ("you and your spouse's bank account"). The inflection of both is normally preferred (e.g. Jack's and your dogs), but there is a tendency to avoid this construction, too, in favour of a construction that does not use a coordinate possessive (e.g. by using "Jack's letters and yours"). Where a construction like "Jack's and your dogs" is used, the interpretation is usually "segregatory" (i.e. not joint possession).

= With other punctuation; compounds with pronouns

= If the word or compound includes, or even ends with, a punctuation mark, an apostrophe and an ''s'' are still added in the usual way: " Westward Ho!'s railway station"; "''Awaye!'''s Paulette Whitten recorded Bob Wilson's story"; ''Washington, D.C.'s museums'' (assuming that the prevailing style requires full stops in ''D.C.).'' *If the word or compound already includes a possessive apostrophe, a double possessive results: ''Tom's sisters' careers''; ''the head of marketing's husband's preference''; ''the master of foxhounds' best dog's death''. Many style guides, while allowing that these constructions are possible, advise rephrasing: ''the head of marketing's husband prefers that...''. If an original apostrophe or apostrophe with ''s'' occurs at the end, it is left by itself to do double duty: ''Our employees are better paid than McDonald's employees''; ''Standard & Poor's indices are widely used'': the fixed forms of ''

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

'' and ''

Standard & Poor's S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is con ...

'' already include possessive apostrophes. For similar cases involving geographical names, see

. * Similarly, the possessives of all phrases whose wording is fixed are formed in the same way: **"

Us and Them Us and Them may refer to: *The sociological concept of in-group and out-group *'' Us & Them'', an American television series * ''Us and Them'' (Australian TV series), a 1994 Australian comedy television series * "Us and Them" (song), by Pink Floyd ...

s inclusion on the album '' The Dark Side of the Moon'' ** You Am I's latest CD **

The 69'ers The 69'ers were an Australian rock, pop, jug and country band formed in 1969. They released two albums, ''The 69er's Album'' (1971) and ''Francis Butlers 69er's Live'' (1974). The group toured Australia and appeared at the Sunbury Pop Festival i ...

' drummer, Tom Callaghan (only the second apostrophe is possessive) ** ''

His 'n' Hers ''His 'n' Hers'' is the fourth studio album by English rock band Pulp, released on 18 April 1994 by Island Records. It proved to be the band's breakthrough album, reaching number nine on the UK Albums Chart, and was nominated for the 1994 Mercu ...

'''s first track is called "Joyriders". ** Was ''

She She most commonly refers to: *She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English. She or S.H.E. may also refer to: Literature and films *'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...

'' success greater, or ''

King Solomon's Mines ''King Solomon's Mines'' (1885) is a popular novel by the English Victorian adventure writer and fabulist Sir H. Rider Haggard. It tells of a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the ...

''? :For complications with foreign phrases and titles, see

= Time, money, and similar

= 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'', ''one mile's drive from here''. This is like 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'').

= Possessive pronouns and adjectives

= No apostrophe is used in the following possessive pronouns and adjectives: ''yours'', ''his'', ''hers'', ''ours'', ''its'', ''theirs'', and ''whose''. All other possessive pronouns do end with an apostrophe and an ''s''. In singular forms, the apostrophe comes first, e.g. ''one's''; ''everyone's''; ''somebody's'', ''nobody else's'', etc., while the apostrophe follows the ''s'' in plural forms as with nouns: ''the others' complaints''. The possessive of ''it'' was originally ''it's'', and it's a common mistake today to write ''its'' this way, though the apostrophe was dropped by the early 1800s and authorities are now unanimous that ''it's'' can be only a contraction of ''it is'' or ''it has''.

= Importance for disambiguation

= Each of these four phrases (listed in Steven Pinker's '' The Language Instinct'') has a distinct meaning: *My sister's friend's investment ''(the investment belonging to a friend of my sister)'' *My sister's friends' investment ''(the investment belonging to several friends of my sister)'' *My sisters' friend's investment ''(the investment belonging to a friend of several of my sisters)'' *My sisters' friends' investment ''(the investment belonging to several friends of several of my sisters)''

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social an ...

, on being challenged to produce a sentence whose meaning depended on a possessive apostrophe, came up with: *Those things over there are my husband's. (''Those things over there belong to my husband''.) *Those things over there are my husbands'. (''Those things over there belong to several husbands of mine''.) *Those things over there are my husbands. (''I'm married to those men over there.'')

Singular nouns ending with an "s" or "z" sound

Some singular nouns are pronounced with a

sibilant Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', and ...

sound at the end: /s/ or /z/. The spelling of these ends with ''-s'', ''-se'', ''-z'', ''-ze'', ''-ce'', ''-x'', or ''-xe''. Many respected authorities recommend that practically all singular nouns, including those ending with a sibilant sound, have possessive forms with an extra ''s'' after the apostrophe so that the spelling reflects the underlying pronunciation. Examples include

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

, the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

and ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

''. Such authorities demand possessive singulars like these: ''

Bridget Jones's Diary ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire and written by Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies (writer), Andrew Davies, and Helen Fielding. A co-production of the United Kingdom, United States and France, it is ...

''; ''Tony Adams's friend; my boss's job; the US's economy''. Rules that modify or extend the standard principle have included the following: *If the singular possessive is difficult or awkward to pronounce with an added sibilant, do not add an extra ''s''; these exceptions are supported by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

Style Guide'', and '' The American Heritage Book of English Usage''. Such sources permit possessive singulars like these: ''Socrates' later suggestion''; or ''Achilles' heel'' if that is how the pronunciation is intended.

style guide omits the apostrophe entirely in this case. *Some style guides advise that Classical, biblical, and similar names ending in a sibilant, especially if they are polysyllabic, should not take an added ''s'' in the possessive; among sources giving exceptions of this kind are ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' and ''The Elements of Style'', which make general stipulations, and

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

, which mentions only ''

Moses Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...

'' and ''Jesus''. As a particular case, ''Jesus''' – referred to as "an accepted liturgical archaism" in '' Hart's Rules'' – is commonly written instead of ''Jesus's''. * There are also some entrenched uses, for example '' St James's Park'' (in London) (but the Newcastle stadium displays its name spelled '' St James' Park''), ''

St James's Palace St James's Palace is the most senior royal palace in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. The palace gives its name to the Court of St James's, which is the monarch's royal court, and is located in the City of Westminster in London. Altho ...

'' (and ''the

Court of St James's The Court of St James's is the royal court for the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. All ambassadors to the United Kingdom are formally received by the court. All ambassadors from the United Kingdom are formally accredited from the court – & ...

''), ''

St. James's Hospital St. James's Hospital ''Confirms spelling of name as "James's" and Irish name'' ( ga, Ospidéal Naomh Séamas) is a teaching hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Its academic partner is Trinity College Dublin. It is managed by Dublin Midlands Hospital G ...

'' (in Dublin), ''King James's School'', Knaresborough and ''King James's School'', Almondbury (but there is no genitive at all in ''St James Park'' (Exeter) or ''St. James Park'' (Bronx); nor is there one in ''the

King James Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

'' since, like the ''

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

,'' it is a description not a possessive). Although less common, some contemporary writers still follow the older practice of omitting the second ''s'' in all cases ending with a sibilant, but usually not when written ''-x'' or ''-xe''. Some contemporary authorities such as the Associated Press Stylebook recommend or allow the practice of omitting the additional "s" in all words ending with an "s", but not in words ending with other sibilants ("z" and "x"). The 15th edition of '' The Chicago Manual of Style'' had recommended the traditional practice, which included providing for several exceptions to accommodate spoken usage such as the omission of the extra ''s'' after a polysyllabic word ending in a sibilant, but the 16th edition no longer recommends omitting the possessive "s". 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

he football ground He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

and the area of ''

St. James's Park St James's Park is a park in the City of Westminster, central London. It is at the southernmost tip of the St James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less. It is the most easterly of a near-continuous ch ...

'' in London). However, debate has been going on regarding the punctuation of St James' Park (Newcastle) for some time, unlike St James's Park (London) which is the less contentious version. For more details on practice with geographic names, see the relevant section

. Some writers like to reflect standard spoken practice in cases like these with ''sake'': ''for convenience' sake'', ''for goodness' sake'', ''for appearance' sake'', ''for compromise' sake'', etc. This punctuation is preferred in major style guides. Others prefer to add '''s'': ''for convenience's sake''. Still others prefer to omit the apostrophe when there is an ''s'' sound before ''sake'': ''for morality's sake'', but ''for convenience sake''.

Nouns ending with silent ''s'', ''x'', or ''z''

The English possessive of French nouns ending in a silent ''s'', ''x'', or ''z'' is addressed by various style guides. Certainly a sibilant is pronounced in examples like ''Descartes's'' and ''Dumas's''; the question addressed here is whether ''s'' needs to be added. Similar examples with ''x'' or ''z'': s main ingredient is truffle''; ''His 's loss went unnoticed''; ''"Verreaux('s) eagle, a large, predominantly black eagle, ''Aquila verreauxi'',..."'' (

OED The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

, entry for "Verreaux", with silent ''x''; see

Verreaux's eagle Verreaux's eagle (''Aquila verreauxii'') is a large, mostly African, bird of prey. It is also called the black eagle, especially in southern Africa, not to be confused with the Indian black eagle (''Ictinaetus malayensis''), which lives far to t ...

); in each of these some writers might omit the added ''s''. The same principles and residual uncertainties apply with "naturalised" English words, like ''Illinois'' and ''Arkansas''. For possessive ''plurals'' of words ending in a silent ''x'', ''z'' or ''s'', the few authorities that address the issue at all typically call for an added ''s'' and suggest that the apostrophe precede the ''s'': ''The Loucheux's homeland is in the Yukon''; ''Compare the two Dumas's literary achievements''. The possessive of a cited French title with a silent plural ending is uncertain: "'s long and complicated publication history", but "' singular effect was 'exotic primitive' ..." (with nearby sibilants ''-ce-'' in ''noces'' and ''s-'' in ''singular''). Compare treatment of other titles, above. Guides typically seek a principle that will yield uniformity, even for foreign words that fit awkwardly with standard English punctuation.

Possessives in geographic names

Place names in the United States do not use the possessive apostrophe on federal maps and signs. The

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...

, which has responsibility for formal naming of municipalities and geographic features, has deprecated the use of possessive apostrophes since 1890 so as not to show ownership of the place. Only five names of natural features in the US are officially spelled with a genitive apostrophe:

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...

; Ike's Point, New Jersey; John E's Pond, Rhode Island; Carlos Elmer's Joshua View, Arizona; and Clark's Mountain, Oregon.US Board on Geographic Names: FAQs
Geonames.usgs.gov. Retrieved on 7 April 2013. Some municipalities, originally incorporated using the apostrophe, have dropped it in accordance with this policy;

Taylors Falls Taylors Falls is a city in Chisago County, Minnesota, United States, located at the junction of U.S. Highway 8 and Minnesota State Highway 95. The population was 1,055 at the 2020 census. History Taylors Falls was platted in 1850 or 1851, and ...

in Minnesota, for example, was originally incorporated as "Taylor's Falls". On the state level, the federal policy is not always followed:

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

's official state website has a page on

Camel's Hump State Forest Camel's Hump State Forest (alternatively Camels Hump State Forest) covers a total of in two blocks in the U.S. state of Vermont. Stevens Block comprises in Buels Gore, Fayston, and Starksboro in Chittenden, Washington, and Addison counties, ...

. Australia's

Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping ANZLIC, or The Spatial Information Council, is the peak intergovernmental organisation providing leadership in the collection, management and use of spatial information in Australia and New Zealand. It supports the establishment of a Spatial Da ...

also has a no-apostrophe policy, a practice it says goes back to the 1900s and which is generally followed around the country. On the other hand, the United Kingdom has

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...

, Bishop's Castle and

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

(among many others) but

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

and St Helens. London Underground's Piccadilly line has the adjacent stations of Earl's Court in Earl's Court and Barons Court. These names were mainly fixed in form many years before grammatical rules were fully standardised. While

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

play

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

at a stadium called 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 the parish of St James's Church, Piccadilly). Modern usage has been influenced by considerations of technological convenience including the economy of typewriter ribbons and films, and similar computer character "disallowance" which tend to ignore past standards. Practice in the United Kingdom and Canada is not so uniform.

Possessives in names of organizations

Sometimes the apostrophe is omitted in the names of clubs, societies, and other organizations, even though the standard principles seem to require it: '' Country Women's Association'', but ''International Aviation Association''; ''

Magistrates' Court of Victoria The Magistrates' Court of Victoria is the lowest court in the Australian state of Victoria. The court possesses original jurisdiction over summary offences and indictable offences heard summarily, as well as civil claims up to $100,000. It ...

'', but '' Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union''. Usage is variable and inconsistent. Style guides typically advise consulting an official source for the standard form of the name (as one would do if uncertain about other aspects of the spelling of the name); some tend towards greater prescriptiveness, for or against such an apostrophe. As the case of ' shows, it is not possible to analyze these forms simply as non-possessive plurals, since ''women'' is the only correct plural form of ''woman''.

Possessives in business names

Where a business name is based on a family name it should in theory take an apostrophe, but many leave it out (contrast ''

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company wa ...

'' with ''

Harrods Harrods Limited is a department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to other ...

''). 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, but this is not always the case. Some business names may inadvertently spell a different name if the name with an ''s'' at the end is also a name, such as Parson. A small activist group called the

Apostrophe Protection Society The Apostrophe Protection Society is a UK society with "the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark". It was founded in 2001 by John Richards, a retired sub-editor, in response to his observation ...

has campaigned for large retailers such as Harrods,

Currys Currys (branded as Currys PC World between 2010 and 2021) is an electrical retailer and aftercare service provider operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland, specialising in white goods, consumer electronics, computers and mobile phones. E ...

, 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."Harrods told to put its apostrophe back
Times Online (21 August 2006). Further confusion can be caused by businesses whose names look as if they should be pronounced differently without an apostrophe, such as Paulos Circus, and other companies that leave the apostrophe out of their logos but include it in written text, such as

Cadwalader's Cadwaladers is a family run chain of cafes that originated in Gwynedd, Wales. The original ice cream parlour was introduced by husband and wife David and Hannah Cadwalader in 1927 in Criccieth and was originally run as a general store. The busine ...

Apostrophe showing omission

An apostrophe is commonly used to indicate omitted characters, normally letters: * 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''. * It is used in

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

s, as ''gov't'' for ''government''. It may indicate omitted numbers where the spoken form is also capable of omissions, as '''70s'' for ''1970s'' representing ''seventies'' for ''nineteen-seventies''. In modern usage, apostrophes are generally omitted when letters are removed from the start of a word, particularly for a compound 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 a non-standard contraction. A common example: '''til'' for ''until'', though ''till'' is in fact the original form, and ''until'' is derived from it. **The spelling ''fo'c's'le'', contracted from the nautical term ''forecastle'', is unusual for having three apostrophes. The spelling ''bo's'n's'' (from ''boatswain's''), as in ''Bo's'n's Mate'', also has three apostrophes, two showing omission and one possession. ''Fo'c's'le'' may also take a possessive ''s'' – as in ''the fo'c's'le's timbers'' – giving four apostrophes in one word. A word which formerly contained two apostrophes is ''sha'n't ''for ''shall not'', examples of which may be found in the older works of

P G Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

and "Frank Richards" (

Charles Hamilton Charles Hamilton may refer to: People in Canada * Charles Hamilton (bishop) (1834–1919), Anglican bishop of Ottawa * Charles Edward Hamilton (1844–1919), Canadian politician * Sir Charles Hamilton, 2nd Baronet, of Marlborough House (1767–184 ...

), but this has been superseded by ''shan't''. **Shortenings with more apostrophes, such as ''y'all'dn't've'' (

y'all ''Y'all'' (pronounced ) is a contraction of ''you'' and ''all'', sometimes combined as ''you-all''. ''Y'all'' is the main second-person plural pronoun in Southern American English, with which it is most frequently associated, though it also ap ...

wouldn't have), are possible, particularly in Southern US dialects. *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"); "''a spare pince-nez'd man''" (cited in

, entry for "pince-nez"; ''pince-nezed'' is also in citations). *An apostrophe's function as possessive or contractive can depend on the grammatical context: **We rehearsed for Friday's opening night. (''We rehearsed for the opening night on Friday.'') **We rehearsed because Friday's opening night. (''We rehearsed because Friday is opening night.'' "Friday's" here is a contraction of "Friday is.") * Eye dialects use apostrophes in creating the effect of a non-standard pronunciation. *Apostrophes to omit letters in place names are common on British road signs when space does not allow for the full name for example,

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

abbreviated as "W'hampton" and Kidderminster as "K'minster". *The

, while discouraging possessive apostrophes in place names, allows apostrophes indicating omission, as in "Lake O' the Woods," or when normally present in a surname, as in "O'Malley Draw".

Use in forming some plurals

Following an evolution in usage in the 20th century, today "the apostrophe of plurality continues in at least five areas": abbreviations, letters of the alphabet/small words, numbers, family names, and in

non-standard Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...

use.

Abbreviations

For abbreviations, including acronyms, the use of ''s'' without an apostrophe is now more common than its use with an apostrophe. Most modern style guides disparage the use of apostrophes in all plural abbreviations. Some references continue to condone their use, or even recommend their use in some abbreviations. For example, ''The Canadian Style'' states "Add an apostrophe and ''s'' to form the plural of abbreviations containing more than one period", so ''G.M.'s'' is preferred to ''G.M.s''. The '' Oxford Companion to the English Language'' condones ''V.I.P.'s'', ''VIP's'', and ''VIPs'' equally.

Letters of the alphabet, and small words

For single lowercase letters, pluralization with '''s'' is usual. Many guides recommend apostrophes whether the single letters are lowercase (as in " minding your p's and q's") or uppercase (as in "A's and S's"). '' The Chicago Manual of Style'' recommends the apostrophe of plurality only for lowercase letters. Sometimes, adding just ''s'' rather than s'' may leave meaning ambiguous or presentation inelegant. However, an apostrophe is not always the preferred solution. APA style requires the use of italics instead of an apostrophe: ''p''s, ''n''s, etc. In the phrase ''dos and don'ts'', most modern style guides disparage spelling the first word as ''do's''. However, there is a lack of consensus and certainly the use of an apostrophe continues, legitimately, in which "the apostrophe of plurality occurs in the first word but not the second".

Numbers and symbols

The '' Oxford Companion to the English Language'' notes that "a plural ''s'' after a set of numbers is often preceded by an apostrophe, as in ''3's and 4's''..., but many housestyles and individuals now favour ''3s and 4s''". Most style guides prefer the lack of apostrophe for groups of years (e.g. ''1980s'') and will prefer ''90s'' or '''90s'' over ''90's'' or '''90's''. While many guides discourage using an apostrophe in all numbers/dates, many other guides ''encourage'' using an apostrophe for numbers or are divided on the issue; for example, the ''Australian Government Style Manual'' recommends "Binary code uses 0’s and 1’s" but recommends "the 2020s". Still other guides take a laissez-faire approach. For example, the University of Sussex's online guide notes regional variation in the use of apostrophes in dates,Guide to Punctuation
Larry Trask, University of Sussex: "American usage, however, does put an apostrophe here: (A) This research was carried out in 1970's." and slightly prefers ''1's and 7's'' over ''1s and 7s'' but condones both. The apostrophe is very often used in plurals of symbols, for example "that page has too many &'s and #'s on it". Some style guides state that the apostrophe is unnecessary since there is no ambiguity but that some editors and teachers prefer this usage. The addition of an ''s'' without an apostrophe may make the text difficult to read. For many numbers and symbols, a useful alternative is to write out the numbers as words (e.g. ''thousands'' instead of ''1000's'' or ''1000s'', and ''ampersands'' instead of ''&s'' or ''&'s'').

Family names

The vast majority of English references published from the late 20th century onwards disparage the use of apostrophes in family-name plurals, for example identifying ''Joneses'' as correct and ''Jones's'' as incorrect. As an exception, the '' Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (2018) reports that, in addition to ''Joneses'' etc., standard apostrophe usage does continue "in family names, especially if they end in ''-s'', as in '' keeping up with the Jones's''".

Nonstandard use

See , below.

Use in non-English names

Names that are not strictly native to English sometimes have an apostrophe substituted to represent other characters (see also As a mark of elision, below). *Anglicised versions of Irish surnames typically contain an apostrophe after an ''O'' (in place of Ó), for example "Dara O'Brian" for . *Some

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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. However, it may also arise from a misinterpretation of printers' use of an inverted comma, (''turned comma'' or "6-quote"), as a substitute for superscript ''c'' when printing with hand-set metal type. Compare: M'Lean, M^cLean, M‘Lean.

Use in transliteration

In transliterated foreign words, an apostrophe may be used to separate letters or syllables that otherwise would likely be interpreted incorrectly. For example: *in the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

word , a transliteration of , the syllables are as in ''mus·haf'', not ''mu·shaf'' *in the Japanese name ''

Shin'ichi Shin'ichi or Shinichi (しんいち, シンイチ) is a masculine Japanese given name. ''Shin'' and ''ichi'' are separated and it is pronounced . Possible writings Different kanji that are pronounced are combined with the kanji for " to give dif ...

'', the apostrophe shows that the pronunciation is ''shi·n·i·chi'' (

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

), where the letters ''n'' () and ''i'' () are separate

morae A mora (plural ''morae'' or ''moras''; often symbolized μ) is a basic timing unit in the phonology of some spoken languages, equal to or shorter than a syllable. For example, a short syllable such as ''ba'' consists of one mora (''monomoraic'') ...

, rather than ''shi·ni·chi'' (). *in the Chinese

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

romanization, the apostrophe (, , géyīn fúhào, 'syllable-dividing mark') is used before a syllable starting with a vowel (''a'', ''o'', or ''e'') in a multiple-syllable word when the syllable does not start the word (which is most commonly realized as ), unless the syllable immediately follows a

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (figure d ...

or other dash. This is done to remove ambiguity that could arise, as in ''

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...

'', which consists of the two syllables ' ("") ' (""), compared to such words as ' (""). (This ambiguity does not occur when tone marks are used: The two tone marks in ' unambiguously show that the word consists of two syllables. However, even with tone marks, the city is usually spelled with an apostrophe as '.) Furthermore, an apostrophe may be used to indicate a

glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...

in transliterations. For example: *in the Arabic word , a common transliteration of (part of) ''al-qur'ān'', the apostrophe corresponds to the diacritic Maddah over the , one of the letters in the Arabic alphabet Rather than ( modifier letter left half ring), the apostrophe is sometimes used to indicate a

voiced pharyngeal fricative The voiced pharyngeal approximant or fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ?\. Epiglotta ...

as it sounds and looks like the glottal stop to most English speakers. For example: *in the Arabic word for , the apostrophe corresponds to the Arabic letter . Finally, in "scientific" transliteration of Cyrillic script, the apostrophe usually represents the soft sign , though in "ordinary" transliteration it is usually omitted. For example, * "The

Ob River } The Ob ( rus, Обь, p=opʲ: Ob') is a major river in Russia. It is in western Siberia; and together with Irtysh forms the world's List of rivers by length, seventh-longest river system, at . It forms at the confluence of the Biya (river), Biya ...

(Russian: Обь), also Ob', is a major river in western Siberia,...".

Non-standard English use

Failure to observe standard use of the apostrophe is widespread and frequently criticised as incorrect, often generating heated debate. The British founder of the

earned a 2001 Ig Nobel prize for "efforts to protect, promote and defend the differences between plural and possessive". A 2004 report by British examination board OCR stated that "the inaccurate use of the apostrophe is so widespread as to be almost universal". A 2008 survey found that nearly half of the UK adults polled were unable to use the apostrophe correctly.Half of Britons struggle with the apostrophe
''The Daily Telegraph'', 11 November 2008

Superfluous apostrophes ("greengrocers' apostrophes")

Apostrophes used in a non-standard manner to form

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

s are known as ''greengrocers' apostrophes'' or ''grocers' apostrophes'', often written as ''greengrocer's apostrophes'' or ''grocer's apostrophes''. They are sometimes humorously called ''greengrocers apostrophe's'', ''rogue apostrophes'', or ''idiot's apostrophes'' (a literal translation of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

word ''Deppenapostroph'', which criticises the misapplication of apostrophes in Denglisch). The practice, once common and acceptable (see Historical development), comes from the identical sound of the

and

forms of most English

s. It is often criticised as a form of

hypercorrection In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is non-standard use of language that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a mi ...

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., , , , , , ) to clarify pronunciation. Truss says this usage is no longer considered proper in formal writing. The term is believed to have been coined in the middle of the 20th century by a teacher of languages working in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, at a time when such mistakes were common in the handwritten signs and advertisements of

greengrocer A greengrocer is a person who owns or operates a shop selling primarily fruit and vegetables. The term may also be used to refer to a shop selling primarily produce. It is used predominantly in the United Kingdom and Australia. In the United ...

s (e. g., '' 1/- a pound, 1/6 d a pound''). Some have argued that its use in mass communication by employees of well-known companies has led to the less literate assuming it to be standard and adopting the habit themselves. The same use of apostrophe before

-s forms is sometimes made by non-native speakers of English. For example, in Dutch, the apostrophe is inserted before the ''s'' when pluralising most words ending in a vowel or ''y'' for example, (English ''babies'') and (English ''radios''). This often produces so-called " Dunglish" errors when carried over into English. Hyperforeignism has been formalised in some pseudo-

anglicism An anglicism is a word or construction borrowed from English by another language. With the rise in Anglophone media and the global spread of British and US cultures in the 20th and 21st centuries, many English terms have become widespread in o ...

s. For example, the French word (from English ''pin'') is used (with the apostrophe in both singular and plural) for

collectible A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms t ...

lapel pin A lapel pin, also known as an enamel pin, is a small pin worn on clothing, often on the lapel of a jacket, attached to a bag, or displayed on a piece of fabric. Lapel pins can be ornamental or can indicate the wearer's affiliation with an organiza ...

s. Similarly, there is an

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

n football club called (after such British clubs as Rangers F.C.) and a Japanese dance group called Super Monkey's.

Omission

In the UK there is a tendency to drop apostrophes in many commonly used names such as St Annes, St Johns Lane, and so on. UK supermarket chain

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

omits the mark where standard practice would require it. Signs in Tesco advertise (among other items) . In his book '' Troublesome Words'', author

Bill Bryson William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...

lambasts Tesco for this, stating that "the mistake is inexcusable, and those who make it are linguistic

Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...

s." The

discourages the use of possessive apostrophes in geographic names (see above), though state agencies do not always conform; Vermont's official state website provides information concerning

. The Geographical Names Board of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia, excludes possessive apostrophes from place names, along with other punctuation.

Particular cases

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

, a proponent of

English spelling reform For centuries, there have been movements to reform the spelling of the English language. It seeks to change English orthography so that it is more consistent, matches pronunciation better, and follows the alphabetic principle. Common motives for ...

on phonetic principles, argued that the apostrophe was mostly redundant. He did not use it for spelling ''cant'', ''hes'', etc., in many of his writings. He did, however, allow ''I'm'' and ''it's''.

Hubert Selby Jr. Hubert "Cubby" Selby Jr. (July 23, 1928 – April 26, 2004) was an American writer. Two of his novels, ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'' (1964) and ''Requiem for a Dream'' (1978) explore worlds in the New York area and were adapted as films, both of whi ...

used a slash instead of an apostrophe mark for contractions and did not use an apostrophe at all for possessives.

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

made greater use of apostrophes, and frequently used ''sha'n't'', with an apostrophe in place of the elided ''ll'' as well as the more usual ''o''. These authors' usages have not become widespread. The British pop group Hear'Say famously made unconventional use of an apostrophe in its name. Truss comments that "the naming of Hear'Say in 2001 was ..a significant milestone on the road to punctuation anarchy".

Criticism

Over the years, the use of apostrophes has been criticised. George Bernard Shaw called them "uncouth bacilli", referring to the apostrophe-like shape of many

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

. The author and language commentator

Anu Garg Anu Garg (born April 5, 1967) is an American author and speaker. He is also the founder of Wordsmith.org, an online community comprising word lovers from an estimated 195 countries. His books explore the joy of words. He has authored several book ...

has called for the abolition of the apostrophe, stating "Some day this world would be free of metastatic cancers, narcissistic con men, and the apostrophe." In his book ''American Speech'', linguist Steven Byington stated of the apostrophe that "the language would be none the worse for its abolition". Adrian Room, in his '' English Journal'' article "Axing the Apostrophe", argued that apostrophes are unnecessary, and context will resolve any ambiguity. In a letter to the ''English Journal'', Peter Brodie stated that apostrophes are "largely decorative ... ndrarely clarify meaning".

John C. Wells John Christopher Wells (born 11 March 1939) is a British phonetician and Esperantist. Wells is a professor emeritus at University College London, where until his retirement in 2006 he held the departmental chair in phonetics. Career Wells ea ...

, emeritus professor of phonetics at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, says the apostrophe is "a waste of time". The Apostrophe Protection Society, founded by retired journalist John Richards in 2001, was brought to a full stop in 2019, Richards (then aged 96) accepting that "the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won!".

Non-English use

As a mark of elision

In many languages, especially European languages, the apostrophe is used to indicate the

of one or more sounds, as in English. *In

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

the apostrophe is used to show that a vowel has been omitted from words, especially in different forms of verbs and in some forms of personal pronoun. For example, : them (from : them), (from ). It is used too in some of the forms of possessive pronouns, for example: (from ). *In

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

, as in Dutch, the apostrophe is used to show that letters have been omitted from words. The most common use is in the indefinite article , which is a contraction of ''een'' meaning 'one' (the number). As the initial ''e'' is omitted and cannot be capitalised, the second word in a sentence that begins with is capitalised instead. For example: , 'A tree is green'. In addition, the apostrophe is used for plurals and diminutives where the root ends with long

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

s, e.g. , , , , etc. * In

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

, Italian, Ligurian, and

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language Occitan (; o ...

word sequences such as , (often shortened to ''maître d'', when used in English), and the final vowel in the first word (''de'' 'of', ''le'' 'the', etc.) is elided because the word that follows it starts with a vowel or a

mute h Muteness is a speech disorder in which a person lacks the ability to speak. Mute or the Mute may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Mute'' (2005 film), a short film by Melissa Joan Hart * ''Mute'' (2018 film), a scien ...

. Similarly, French has instead of ('that he'), instead of ('it is or it's'), and so on. Catalan, French, Italian, and Occitan surnames sometimes contain apostrophes of elision, e.g. , *In

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

, apostrophes are sometimes seen on commercial materials. One might commonly see ('Take me with ou) next to a stand with advertisement leaflets; that would be written in standard orthography. As in German, the apostrophe must not be used to indicate the possessive, except when there is already an ''s'', ''x'' or ''z'' present in the base form, as in ('the Book of Esajas'). *In Dutch, as in Afrikaans, the apostrophe is used to indicate omitted characters. For example, the indefinite article can be shortened to , and the definite article shortened to . When this happens in the first word of a sentence, the ''second'' word of the sentence is capitalised. In general, this way of using the apostrophe is considered non-standard, except as '' genitivus temporalis'' in , , , (for , 'at morning, at afternoon, at evening, at night') and in some frozen place names such as ''

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

'' (

, lit. "The

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

's forest"), ''‌'s-Gravenhage'' (traditional name of

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, lit. "The

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

's hedge"), ''‌'s-Gravenbrakel'' ( Braine-le-Comte, in Belgium), ''‌'s-Hertogenrade'' ( Herzogenrath, in Germany), etc. In addition, the apostrophe is used for plurals where the singulars end with long

s, e.g. , ; and for the genitive of proper names ending with these vowels, e.g. , . These are in fact elided vowels; use of the apostrophe prevents spellings like and . However, most

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...

s do not use an apostrophe where the plural forms would; producing spellings such as and . *In

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

, the limits the elision mark to the definite article (from ) and singular nominative nouns ( from , 'heart'). This is mostly confined to poetry and songs. Idiomatic phrases such as (from , 'thanks to') and (from 'of the') are nonetheless frequent. In-word elision is usually marked with a

, as in (from , 'Dr'). Some early guides used and advocated the use of apostrophes between word parts, to aid recognition of such compound words as , 'guitarist'; but in the latter case, modern usage is to use either a hyphen or a middle dot when disambiguation is necessary, as in ''ĉas-hundo'' or ''ĉas·hundo'', "a hunting dog", not to be mispronounced as ''ĉa.ŝun.do''. * In Finnish, the apostrophe is used in inflected forms of words whose basic form has a "k" between similar vowels, to show that the "k" has elided in the inflected form: for example the word ' ("raw") becomes ' in the plural. The apostrophe shows that the vowels on either side of it belong to different syllables. * French feminine singular

possessive adjective Possessive determiners (from la, possessivus, translit=; grc, κτητικός / ktētikós - en. ktetic Lallu) are determiners which express possession. Some traditional grammars of English refer to them as possessive adjectives, though they do ...

s do not undergo elision, but change to the masculine form instead: ' preceding ' becomes ' ('my church'). **

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

's Bill 101, which dictates the use of French in the province, prohibits the use of apostrophes in proper names in which it would not be used in proper French (thus the international donut chain

Tim Hortons Tim Hortons Inc., commonly nicknamed Tim's, or Timmie's is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain. Based in Toronto, Tim Hortons serves coffee, doughnuts, and other fast-food items. It is Canada's largest quick-service rest ...

, originally spelled with the possessive apostrophe as Tim Horton's, was required to drop the apostrophe in Quebec to comply with Bill 101). * Galician language standard admits the use of apostrophe () for contractions that normally do not use (e.g.: de + a= da) it but when the second element is a proper noun, mostly a title: (the hero of the

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

). They are also used to reproduce oral ellisions and, as stated below, to join (or split) commercial names of popular public establishments, namely bars and in masculine (, The pot). * In

Ganda Ganda may refer to: Places * Ganda, Angola * Ganda, Tibet, China * Ganda, the ancient Latin name of Ghent, a city in Belgium Other uses * Baganda or Ganda, a people of Uganda ** Luganda or Ganda language, a language of Uganda * ''Ganda'' and "Ga ...

, when a word ending with a

is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, the final vowel of the first word is elided and the initial vowel of the second word lengthened in compensation. When the first word is a monosyllable, this elision is represented in the orthography with an apostrophe: in ' 'the father of the children', ' ('of') becomes ''w''; in ' ('who is it?'), ' ('who') becomes ''y''. But the final vowel of a

polysyllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...

is always written, even if it is elided in speech: ' ('this man'), not *', because ' ('man') is a polysyllable. * In German an apostrophe is used almost exclusively to indicate omitted letters. It must not be used for plurals or most of the possessive forms. The only exceptions are the possessive cases of names ending in an "s"-sound as in ', or "to prevent ambiguities" in all other possessive cases of names, as in ' (referring to the female name ', not the male name '). The English/Saxon style of using an apostrophe for possession was introduced after the spelling reform, but is strongly disagreed on by native speakers, and discouraged. Although possessive usage (beyond the exceptions) is widespread, it is often deemed incorrect. The German equivalent of "greengrocers' apostrophes" would be the derogatory ' ('idiot's apostrophe'; ). * In modern printings of

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

, apostrophes are also used to mark elision. Some Ancient Greek words that end in short vowels elide when the next word starts with a vowel. For example, many Ancient Greek authors would write (') for (') and (') for ('). Such modern usage should be carefully distinguished from polytonic Greek's native

rough Rough may refer to: * Roughness (disambiguation) * Rough (golf), the area outside the fairway on a golf course Geography * Rough (facility), former gas field now gas storage facility, off the Yorkshire coast of England People * Alan Rough (born 1 ...

and

smooth breathing The smooth breathing ( grc, ψιλὸν πνεῦμα, psilòn pneûma; ell, ψιλή ''psilí''; la, spīritus lēnis) is a diacritical mark used in polytonic orthography. In Ancient Greek, it marks the absence of the voiceless glottal frica ...

marks, which usually appear as a form of rounded apostrophe. * In

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, the '' geresh'' (׳), often typed as an apostrophe, is used to denote initialisms. A double ''geresh'' (״), known by the dual form

gershayim Gershayim (Hebrew: , without niqqud ), also occasionally grashayim. (), is two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh". Punctuation mark Gershayim most commonly refers to the punctuation mark ...

, is used to denote

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

s; it is inserted before (i.e., to the right of) the last letter of the acronym. Examples: (abbreviation for , 'professor', '

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

'); (', '

P.S. PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug B ...

'). The ''geresh'' is also used to indicate the elision of a sound; however, this use is much less frequent, and confined to the purpose of imitating a natural, informal utterance, for example: (' – short for , ', 'I am/do not'). *In Irish, the past tense of verbs beginning with a vowel, or with ''fh'' followed by a vowel, begins with ''d' ''(elision of ''do''), for example becomes ('opened') and becomes ('returned'). The copula is often elided to '''s'', and ('to'), ('my') etc. are elided before ''f'' and vowels. *In Italian it is used for elision with pronouns, as in instead of ; with articles, as in instead of ; and for truncation, as in instead of . Stylistically, sentences beginning with È (as in ) are often rendered as E' in newspapers, to minimise

leading In typography, leading ( ) is the space between adjacent lines of type; the exact definition varies. In hand typesetting, leading is the thin strips of lead (or aluminium) that were inserted between lines of type in the composing stick to incre ...

(inter-line spacing). *In modern Norwegian, the apostrophe marks that a word has been contracted, such as ' from ' ('have/has not'). Unlike English and French, such elisions are not accepted as part of standard orthography but are used to create a more "oral style" in writing. The apostrophe is also used to mark the genitive for words that end in an -s sound: words ending in -s, -x, and -z, some speakers also including words ending in the sound . As Norwegian doesn't form the plural with -s, there is no need to distinguish between an -s forming the possessive and the -s forming the plural. Therefore, we have ' ('man') and ' ('man's'), without apostrophe, but ' ('naval pilot') and '' ('naval pilot's'). Indicating the possessive for the two former American presidents named George Bush, whose names end in , could be written as both ' (simply adding an -s to the name) and ' (adding an apostrophe to the end of the name). * In Portuguese the apostrophe is used to reproduce certain popular pronunciations such as (pay attention to yourself) or in a few combinations of word, when there is the suppression of the vowel of the preposition ''de'' in certain compound words (the ones formed by two or more stems) such as ('water tower'), ('guineafowl'), (a plant species, ), ('morning star'), etc. Portuguese has many contractions between prepositions and articles or pronouns (like ''na'' for ''em'' + ''a''), but these are written without an apostrophe. Also, no apostrophe is used in the word ''pra'', the reduced or popular form of the preposition ''para''. * Modern Spanish no longer uses the apostrophe to indicate elision in standard writing, although it can sometimes be found in older poetry for that purpose. Instead Spanish writes out the spoken elision in full (', ') except for the contraction ' for ' + ', and ''al'' for ''a'' + ''el,'' which use no apostrophe. Spanish also switches to a form that is identical to the masculine article (but is actually a variant of the feminine article) immediately before a feminine noun beginning with a stressed ''a'' instead of writing (or saying) an elision: ', ', and ' but ' and '. This reflects the origin of the Spanish definite articles from the Latin demonstratives '. *In

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, the apostrophe marks an elision, such as ', short for ' ('in the city'), to make the text more similar to the spoken language. This is relaxed style, fairly rarely used, and would not be used by traditional newspapers in political articles, but could be used in entertainment related articles and similar. The formal way to denote elision in Swedish is by using colon, e.g. ' for ' which is rarely spelled out in full. The apostrophe must not be used to indicate the possessive except – although not mandatory – when there is already an ''s'', ''x'' or ''z'' present in the base form, as in '. *

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

uses the apostrophe to mark elision of the definite article ('the') following a vowel (''a'', ''e'', ''i'', ''o'', ''u'', ''y'', or, in Welsh, ''w''), as in , 'to the house'. It is also used with the particle , such as with , 'she is'.

As a glottal stop

Several languages and transliteration systems use the apostrophe or some similar mark to indicate a

, sometimes considering it a letter of the alphabet: *In several Finno-Ugric languages, such as

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

and Finnish; for example in the Finnish word ', being the genitive or accusative of ' ('raw'). *In Guarani, it is called ' , and used in the words ' (language, to speak), ' (grass), ' (sterile). *In Hawaiian, the ''

okina Okina may refer to: * ʻOkina, a letter used in some Polynesian languages, visually resembling a left single quotation mark * Okina () or , a character from the ''Rurouni Kenshin'' manga series * Okina, Spain, a village in the Basque Country * , ...

'' , an inverted apostrophe, is often rendered as . It is considered a letter of the alphabet. *

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

. *In the

Tongan language Tongan (English pronunciation: or ; ') is an Austronesian language of the Polynesian branch native to the island nation of Tonga. It has around 187,000 speakers. It uses the word order verb–subject–object. Related languages Tongan is one ...

, the apostrophe is called a ' and is the last letter of the alphabet. It represents the glottal stop. Like the okina, it is inverted. *Various other Austronesian languages, such as Samoan, Tahitian, and

Chamorro Chamorro may refer to: * Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific * Chamorro language, an Austronesian language indigenous to The Marianas * Chamorro Time Zone, the time zone of Guam and the Northern Mari ...

. * Tetum, one of the official languages of

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...

. *The Brazilian native

Tupi language Old Tupi, Ancient Tupi or Classical Tupi (also spelled as Tupí) is an extinct Tupian language which was spoken by the aboriginal Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who inhabited coastal regions in South and Southeast Brazil. It belongs to the ...

. * Mossi (Mooré), a language of

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...

. *In

Võro Võro may refer to: * Võro people, an ethnic group of Estonia * Võro language, a language belonging to the Baltic-Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages of Estonia * Võro Institute, the governing organization of the Võro language Voro ma ...

, the apostrophe is used in parallel with the letter ''q'' as symbol of plural. *Several fictional languages such as

Klingon The Klingons ( ; Klingon: ''tlhIngan'' ) are a fictional species in the science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''. Developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon in 1967 for the original ''Star Trek'' (''TOS'') series, Klingons were swarthy humanoids c ...

D'ni ''Myst'' is a franchise centered on a series of adventure video games. The first game in the series, ''Myst'', was released in 1993 by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller and their video game company Cyan, Inc. The first sequel to ''Myst'', ''Riven' ...

Mando'a Mandalorians are fictional people associated with the planet Mandalore in the ''Star Wars'' universe and franchise created by George Lucas. Their most distinct cultural features are their battle helmets, chest armor, wrist gauntlets, and often ...

or Na'vi add apostrophes to make names appear "alien". The apostrophe represents sounds resembling the glottal stop in the

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...

and in some

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

s of

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigra ...

, including

and

. In that case, the letter ''

'ayn ''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac ܥ, and Arabic (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only). The letter represents a ...

'' (Arabic ع and Hebrew ע) is correspondingly transliterated with the opening single quotation mark.

As a mark of palatalization or non-palatalization

Some languages and

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

systems use the apostrophe to mark the presence, or the lack of,

palatalization Palatalization may refer to: *Palatalization (phonetics), the phonetic feature of palatal secondary articulation *Palatalization (sound change) Palatalization is a historical-linguistic sound change that results in a palatalized articulation ...

: *In

Belarusian Belarusian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Belarus * Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent * A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus * Belarusian language * Belarusian culture * Belarusian cuisine * Byelor ...

and

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

, the apostrophe is used between a consonant and a following "soft" (

iotified In Slavic languages, iotation (, ) is a form of palatalization that occurs when a consonant comes into contact with a palatal approximant from the succeeding phoneme. The is represented by iota (ι) in the Cyrillic alphabet and the Greek alphab ...

) vowel (Be.: е, ё, ю, я; Uk.: є, ї, 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 a word. It therefore marks a morpheme boundary before and, in Belarusian, is a letter of the alphabet (as the hard sign in Russian is) rather than a simple punctuation mark in English, as it is not a punctuation mark in Belarusian. It appears frequently in Ukrainian, as, for instance, in the words: () 'five', () 'departure', () 'united', () 'to clear up, explain', () play (drama), etc. *In Russian and some derived alphabets, the same function has been served by the

hard sign The letter Ъ (italics ) of the Cyrillic script is known as er golyam (ер голям – "big er") in the Bulgarian alphabet, as the hard sign (russian: твёрдый знак, tvjórdyj znak, , rue, твердый знак, tverdyj znak) in ...

(ъ, formerly called ''yer''). But the apostrophe saw some use as a substitute after 1918, when Soviet authorities enforced an orthographic reform by confiscating

movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuatio ...

bearing the hard sign from stubborn printing houses in Petrograd. *In some Latin transliterations of certain

Cyrillic alphabets Numerous Cyrillic alphabets are based on the Cyrillic script. The early Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the 9th century AD and replaced the earlier Glagolitic script developed by the Byzantine theologians Saints Cyril and Methodius, Cyril ...

(for

, Russian, and

), 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. (The prime symbol is also used for the same purpose.) Some of these transliteration schemes use a double apostrophe ( ˮ ) to represent the apostrophe in Ukrainian and Belarusian text and the hard sign (ъ) in Russian text, e.g. Ukrainian ' ('Slavic') is transliterated as '. *Some Karelian orthographies use an apostrophe to indicate palatalization, e.g. ' ('to give advice'), ' ('just (like)'), ' ('to revive').

To separate morphemes

Some languages use the apostrophe to separate the

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

of a word and its

affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...

es, especially if the root is foreign and unassimilated. (For another kind of morphemic separation see

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

, below.) * In

an apostrophe is sometimes used to join the

enclitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a wo ...

definite article to words of foreign origin, or to other words that would otherwise look awkward. For example, one would write ' to mean "the

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

". There is some variation in what is considered "awkward enough" to warrant an apostrophe; for instance, long-established words such as ' ('company') or ' ('level') might be written ' and ', but will generally be seen without an apostrophe. Due to Danish influence, this usage of the apostrophe can also be seen in Norwegian, but is non-standard – a hyphen should be used instead: e.g. (the CD). *In

...

, apostrophes can be used in the declension of some foreign names to separate the stem from any

declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ar ...

endings; e.g., ' (

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

) or ' ( illative case) of ''Monet'' (name of the famous painter). *In Finnish, apostrophes are used in the declension of foreign names or loan words that end in a consonant when written but are pronounced with a vowel ending, e.g. ' ('in a show'), ' ('to Bordeaux'). For Finnish as well as

, there is a closely related use of the colon. *In

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

, the apostrophe is used exclusively for marking inflections of words and word-like elements (but not

s – a hyphen is used instead) whose spelling conflicts with the normal rules of inflection. This mainly affects foreign words and names. For instance, one would correctly write ' for "

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

's campaign". In this example, ' is spelled without an apostrophe, since its spelling and pronunciation fit into normal Polish rules; but ' needs the apostrophe, because ''e'' disappears from the pronunciation, changing the inflection pattern. This rule is often misunderstood as calling for an apostrophe after ''all'' foreign words, regardless of their pronunciation, yielding the incorrect ', for example. The effect is akin to the greengrocers' apostrophe (see above). *In

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

, proper nouns are capitalised and an apostrophe is inserted between the noun and any following

inflectional suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

, e.g. ' ("in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

"), contrasting with ' ("in school", ' is a common noun) and ' ('Istanbulite', ''-lu'' is a

derivational suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the Stem (linguistics), stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the Grammatical conjugation ...

). *In

the apostrophe is used with infixed pronouns in order to distinguish them from the preceding word (e.g. ', 'and my sister' as opposed to ', 'about a sister').

Miscellaneous uses in other languages

*In

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally ** Breton people ** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Ga ...

, the combination ' is used for the consonant (like ''ch'' in English ''Loch Ness''), while ' is used for the consonant (as in French ' or English ''she''). *In Czech, an apostrophe is used for writing to indicate spoken or informal language where the writer wants to express the natural way of informal speech, but it should not be used in formal text or text of a serious nature. E.g., instead of ' ('he read'), the word form ' is used. ' is the informal variant of the verb form ', at least in some varieties. These two words are the same in meaning, but to use the informal form gives the text a more natural tone, as though a friend were talking to you. Furthermore, the same as in the Slovak case above holds for lowercase ''t'' and ''d'', and for the two-digit year notation. *In Finnish, one of the consonant gradation patterns is the change of a ''k'' into a

hiatus Hiatus may refer to: *Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure *Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species ''Hiatus fulvipes'' *Globa ...

, e.g. ' → ' ('a pile' → 'a 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. ' → ', ' → '. (This is in contrast to compound words, where the equivalent problem is solved with a

, e.g. ', 'land area'.) Similarly, the apostrophe is used to mark the

(contraction) that occurs in poetry, e.g. ' for ' ('where is'). * Galician restaurants sometimes use ' in their names instead of the standard article ' ('the'). *In

, ' (pronounced ) is used in place of ''ŋ'' on keyboards where this character is not available. The apostrophe distinguishes it from the letter combination ' (pronounced ), which has separate use in the language. Compare this with the Swahili usage below. *In

, the '' geresh'' (a diacritic similar to the apostrophe and often represented by one) is used for several purposes other than to mark an elision: **As an adjacent to letters to show sounds that are not represented in the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet ( he, wikt:אלפבית, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew languag ...

: Sounds such as (English ''j'' as in ''job''), (English ''th'' as in ''thigh''), and (English ''ch'' as in ''check'') are indicated using ג, ת, and צ with a '' geresh'' (informally ''chupchik''). For example, the name ''George'' is spelled in Hebrew (with representing the first and last consonants). **To denote a

Hebrew numeral The system of Hebrew numerals is a quasi-decimal alphabetic numeral system using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The system was adapted from that of the Greek numerals in the late 2nd century BCE. The current numeral system is also known as t ...

(e.g., , which stands for '50') **To denote a Hebrew letter which stands for itself (e.g., – the letter ''

mem Mem (also spelled Meem, Meme, or Mim) is the thirteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew mēm , Aramaic Mem , Syriac mīm ܡ, Arabic mīm and Phoenician mēm . Its sound value is . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek mu ...

'') **

Gershayim Gershayim (Hebrew: , without niqqud ), also occasionally grashayim. (), is two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh". Punctuation mark Gershayim most commonly refers to the punctuation mark ...

(a double geresh) to denote a Hebrew letter name (e.g., – the letter '' lamed'') **Another (rarer) use of geresh is to denote the last syllable (which in some cases, but not all, is a

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...

) in some words of

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

origin Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * Origin (comics), ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * The Origin (Buffy comic), ''The Origin'' (Bu ...

(e.g., ). **In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

and the Early modern period, gershayim were also used to denote foreign words, as well as a means of emphasis. * In Italian, an apostrophe is sometimes used as a substitute for a

grave A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...

or an

acute accent The acute accent (), , is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed ch ...

. This may be done after an initial E or an accented final vowel (when writing in all-capitals), or when the proper form of the letter is unavailable for technical reasons. So a sentence beginning ('It is true that...') may be written as . This form is often seen in newspapers, as it is the only case of an accent above the

cap height In typography, cap height is the height of a capital letter above the baseline for a particular typeface.http://pfaedit.sourceforge.net/glossary.html Glossary of (some) Typographic Terms It specifically is the height of capital letters that are f ...

and its omission permits the text to be more closely spaced (

). Less commonly, a forename like might be rendered as ''Niccolo'', or ''NICCOLO''; ''perché'', as ''perche'', or ''PERCHE''. This applies only to machine or computer writing, in the absence of a suitable keyboard. * In

Jèrriais (french: Jersiais, also known as the Jersey Language, Jersey French and Jersey Norman French in English) is a Romance language and the traditional language of the Jersey people. It is a form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, an island i ...

, one of the uses of the apostrophe is to mark

gemination In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...

, or consonant length: For example, ' represents , ' , ' , ' , and ' (contrasted with , , , , and ). * In

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

, the apostrophe is occasionally used to add a Lithuanized ending on an international word, e.g.- "parking'as", "Skype'as", "Facebook'as". * In standard

Lojban Lojban (pronounced ) is a logical, constructed, human language created by the Logical Language Group which aims to be syntactically unambigious. It succeeds the Loglan project. The Logical Language Group (LLG) began developing Lojban in 1987. ...

orthography, the apostrophe is a letter in its own right (called ) that can appear only between two vowels, and is phonemically realised as either or, more rarely, � *In

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...

the apostrophe is sometimes used to represent the sound

schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...

, which can be found on dialectal levels, but not in the Standard Macedonian. *In Slovak, the caron over lowercase ''t'', ''d'', ''l'', and uppercase ''L'' consonants resembles an apostrophe, for example, ''ď'', ''ť'', ''ľ'', and ''Ľ''. This is especially so in certain common typographic renderings. But it is non-standard to use an apostrophe instead of the caron. There is also ''l'' with an acute accent: ''ĺ'', ''Ĺ''. In Slovak the apostrophe is properly used only to indicate

in certain words (', as an abbreviated form of ' ('you are'), or ' for ' ('up')); however, these elisions are restricted to poetry (with a few exceptions). Moreover, the apostrophe is also used before a two-digit year number (to indicate the omission of the first two digits): ' (usually used for 1987). * In Swahili, an apostrophe after ' shows that there is no sound of after the sound; that is, that the ' is pronounced as in English ''singer'', not as in English ''finger''. * In Switzerland, the apostrophe is used as thousands separator alongside the

fixed space In word processing and digital typesetting, a non-breaking space, , also called NBSP, required space, hard space, or fixed space (though it is not of fixed width), is a space character that prevents an automatic line break at its position. In s ...

(e.g., 2'000'000 or for two million) in all four national languages. * In the new Uzbek Latin alphabet adopted in 2000, the apostrophe serves as a

diacritical mark A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacritic ...

to distinguish different phonemes written with the same letter: it differentiates ' (corresponding to Cyrillic '' ў'') from ', and ' (Cyrillic '' ғ'') from '. This avoids the use of special characters, allowing Uzbek to be typed with ease in ordinary

ASCII ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

on any Latin keyboard. In addition, a postvocalic apostrophe in Uzbek represents the glottal stop phoneme derived from Arabic ''

hamza Hamza ( ar, همزة ') () is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop . Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the standard writing system. It is derived from ...

h'' or ''

'', replacing Cyrillic '' ъ''. *In English

Yorkshire dialect The Yorkshire dialect (also known as Broad Yorkshire, Tyke, Yorkie or Yorkshire English) is a dialect of English, or continuum of dialects, spoken in the Yorkshire region of Northern England. The dialect has roots in Old English and is influen ...

, the apostrophe is used to represent the word ''the'', which is contracted to a more glottal (or 'unreleased') /t/ sound. Most users will write ''in t'barn'' ('in the barn'), ''on t'step'' ('on the step'); and those unfamiliar with Yorkshire speech will often make these sound like ''intuh barn'' and ''ontuh step''. A more accurate rendition might be ''in't barn'' and ''on't step'', though even this does not truly convey correct Yorkshire pronunciation as the ''t'' is more like a

. *In the

(hànyǔ pīnyīn) system of

for

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern Standar ...

, an apostrophe is often loosely said to separate syllables in a word where ambiguity could arise. Example: the standard romanization for the name of the city ''

Xī'ān Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqing ...

'' includes an apostrophe to distinguish it from a single-syllable word '. More strictly, however, it is standard to place an apostrophe only before every ''a'', ''e'', or ''o'' that starts a new syllable after the first if it is not preceded by a hyphen or a dash. Examples: '' Tiān'ānmén'', ''

Yǎ'ān Ya'an (, Tibetan: Yak-Nga ) is a prefecture-level city in the western part of Sichuan province, China, located just below the Tibetan Plateau. The city is home to Sichuan Agricultural University, the only 211 Project university and the largest ...

''; but simply ''

Jǐnán Jinan (), alternately romanized as Tsinan, is the capital of Shandong province in Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city in Shandong. The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the his ...

'', in which the syllables are ''ji'' and ''nan'', since the absence of an apostrophe shows that the syllables are not ''jin'' and ''an'' (contrast ''

Jīn'ān Jin'an District () is a district of the city of Lu'an, Anhui, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China. It has a population of and an area of . The government of Jin'an District is located on Renmin St. The district has jurisdiction over three ...

''). This is a kind of morpheme-separation marking (see above). *In the largely superseded

Wade–Giles Wade–Giles () is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Francis Wade, during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert A. Giles's '' Chinese–English Dictionary'' of ...

romanization for Standard Chinese, an apostrophe marks aspiration of the preceding consonant sound. Example: in ''tsê'' (pinyin ''ze'') the consonant represented by ''ts'' is unaspirated, but in ''ts'ê'' (pinyin ''ce'') the consonant represented by ''ts'' is aspirated. Some academic users of the system write this character as a spiritus asper ( or ) or single left (opening)

quotation mark Quotation marks (also known as quotes, quote marks, speech marks, inverted commas, or talking marks) are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to set off direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an ...

(‘). *In some systems of romanization for the Japanese, the apostrophe is used between

moras Moras is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Isère department The following is a list of the 512 Communes of France, communes in the French Departments of France, department of I ...

in ambiguous situations, to differentiate between, for example, ' and ' + '. (This is similar to the practice in Pinyin mentioned above.) *In science fiction and fantasy, the apostrophe is often used in fictional names, sometimes to indicate a

(for example

Mitth'raw'nuruodo Grand Admiral Thrawn (full name: Mitth'raw'nuruodo) is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He is notable for appearing as the eponymous character in the ''Thrawn'' trilogy of novels (1991–1993) by Timothy Zahn. Thrawn is an i ...

in ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

''), but also sometimes simply for decoration.

Typographic form

The shape of the apostrophe originated in

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

writing, as a point with a downwards tail curving clockwise. This form was inherited by the typographic apostrophe, , also known as the typeset apostrophe (or, informally, the curly apostrophe). Later

sans-serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...

typefaces had stylised 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 typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

, a "neutral" or "straight" shape quotation mark, , was created to represent a number of different glyphs with a single keystroke: the apostrophe, both the opening and the closing single

s, the single

primes A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

, and on some typewriters even the exclamation point (by backspacing and overprinting with a period). This is known as the typewriter apostrophe or 'vertical apostrophe'. The same convention was adopted for double

s (). Both simplifications carried over to computer keyboards and the

character set.

Informal use in measurement and mathematics

Formally, the symbol used to represent a

foot The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

of length, depth, or height, is (prime) and that for the

inch Measuring tape with inches The inch (symbol: in or ″) is a unit of length in the British imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement. It is equal to yard or of a foot. Derived from the Roman uncia ("twelfth") ...

is (double prime). (Thus, for example, the notation signifies 5 feet and 7 inches). Similarly, the prime symbol is the formal representation of a

minute of arc A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The na ...

(1/60 of a

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

and

geomatics Geomatics is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as the " discipline concerned with the collection, distribution, storage, analysis, processing, presentation of geographic data or geographic information". Under another definition, it ...

), and double prime represents a

second of arc A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The na ...

(for example, 17°54′32″ represents 17 degrees 54 minutes and 32 seconds). Similarly in mathematics, the prime is generally used to generate more variable names for similar things without resorting to subscripts, with ''x''′ generally meaning something related to (or derived from) ''x''. Because of the very close similarity of the typewriter apostrophe and typewriter double quote to prime and double prime, substitution in informal contexts is ubiquitous but they are deprecated in contexts where proper typography is important. There is also a risk of an automatic process 'correcting' a typewriter apostrophe to a typographic apostrophe, which will not make sense if a prime symbol was intended.

Unicode

In its

Unicode Standard Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, whic ...

(version 13.0), the

Unicode Consortium The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which was developed with the intenti ...

describes three characters that represent apostrophe: *: The typewriter or ASCII apostrophe. The standard remarks: * is preferred where the character is to represent a punctuation mark, as for contractions: "we’ve", and the code is also referred to as a ''punctuation apostrophe''. The closing single quote and the apostrophe were unified in Unicode 2.1 "to correct problems in the mapping tables from

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

code pages." This can make searching text more difficult as quotes and apostrophes cannot be distinguished without context. * is preferred where the apostrophe is to represent a modifier letter (for example, in transliterations to indicate a glottal stop). In the latter case, it is also referred to as a ''letter apostrophe''. The letter apostrophe may be used, for example, in transliterations to represent the Arabic

(''

'') or the Cyrillic " soft sign", or in some orthographies such as ' of

, where this combination is an independent trigraph.

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...

considers this the proper character for

apostrophe within IDNs. This character is rendered identically to in the Unicode code charts, and the standard cautions that one should never assume this code is used in any language.

Characters similar to apostrophe

* * * * * Hawaiian ''

'' and for the transliteration of Arabic and Hebrew ''

ʻayn ''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac ܥ, and Arabic (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only). The letter represents a ...

''. * * * Arabic ''

'' and Hebrew ''

alef Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac , Arabic ʾ and North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez . These letter ...

''. * Arabic and Hebrew ''

ʿayin ''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac ܥ, and Arabic (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only). The letter represents a ...

''. * Stress accent or dynamic accent. * * One of two characters for glottal stop in Nenets. * * Also known as combining Greek '' psili''. * Also known as combining Greek '' dasia''. * * * Identical to U+0313. * Also known as Greek '. * * * * * * * * (or turned comma, which can mark a letter's omission) * * * * * ''

Saltillo Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and highwa ...

'' of the languages of Mexico. * *

Fullwidth form In CJK (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) computing, graphic characters are traditionally classed into fullwidth (in Taiwan and Hong Kong: 全形; in CJK: 全角) and halfwidth (in Taiwan and Hong Kong: 半形; in CJK: 半角) characters. Unlike ...

of the typewriter apostrophe.

Computing

In modern computing practice, Unicode is the standard and default method for character encoding. However, Unicode itself and many

legacy applications In computing, a legacy system is an old method, technology, computer system, or application program, "of, relating to, or being a previous or outdated computer system", yet still in use. Often referencing a system as "legacy" means that it paved ...

have echoes of earlier practices. Furthermore, the limited character set provided by

computer keyboard A computer keyboard is a peripheral input device modeled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. Replacing early punched cards and paper tape technology ...

s has also required practical and pragmatic adjustments. These issues are detailed below.

ASCII encoding

The typewriter apostrophe, , was inherited by computer keyboards, and is the only apostrophe

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

available in the (7-bit)

character encoding Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to Graphics, graphical character (computing), characters, especially the written characters of Language, human language, allowing them to be Data storage, stored, Data communication, transmi ...

, at code value 0x27 (39). In ASCII, it may be used to represent any of left single

, right single quotation mark, apostrophe, vertical line or

prime A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...

(punctuation marks), or an

(modifier letters). Many earlier (pre-1985) computer displays and printers rendered the ASCII apostrophe as a typographic apostrophe, and rendered the

grave accent The grave accent () ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian and many other western European languages, as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other languages using t ...

('back tick', 0x60, 96) as a matching left single quotation mark. This allowed a more typographic appearance of text: ``I can't'' would appear as on these systems. This can still be seen in many documents prepared at that time, and is still used in the

TeX Tex may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tex (nickname), a list of people and fictional characters with the nickname * Joe Tex (1933–1982), stage name of American soul singer Joseph Arrington Jr. Entertainment * ''Tex'', the Italian ...

typesetting system to create typographic quotes.

Typographic apostrophe in 8-bit encodings

Support for the typographic apostrophe ( ’ ) was introduced in several 8-bit character encodings, such as the

Apple Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

operating system's

Mac Roman Mac OS Roman is a character encoding created by Apple Computer, Inc. for use by Macintosh computers. It is suitable for representing text in English and several other Western languages. Mac OS Roman encodes 256 characters, the first 128 of which ...

character set (in 1984), and later in the CP1252 encoding of

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. Both sets also used this code point for a closing single quote. There is no such character in

ISO 8859-1 ISO/IEC 8859-1:1998, ''Information technology — 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets — Part 1: Latin alphabet No. 1'', is part of the ISO/IEC 8859 series of ASCII-based standard character encodings, first edition published in 1 ...

. The

code page In computing, a code page is a character encoding and as such it is a specific association of a set of printable characters and control characters with unique numbers. Typically each number represents the binary value in a single byte. (In some co ...

CP1252 (sometimes incorrectly called ''ANSI'' or ''ISO-Latin'') contains the typographic apostrophe at 0x92. Due to "smart quotes" in Microsoft software converting the ASCII apostrophe to this value, other software makers have been effectively forced to adopt this as a ''de facto'' convention. For instance, the HTML5 standard specifies that this value is interpreted as this character from CP1252. Some earlier non-Microsoft browsers would display a '?' for this and make web pages composed with Microsoft software somewhat hard to read.

Entering apostrophes

Although ubiquitous in typeset material, the typographic apostrophe ( ’ ) is rather difficult to enter on a computer, since it does not have its own key on a standard keyboard. Outside the world of professional typesetting and graphic design, many people do not know how to enter this character and instead use the typewriter apostrophe ( ' ). The typewriter apostrophe has always been considered tolerable on Web pages because of the egalitarian nature of Web publishing, the low resolution of computer monitors in comparison to print, and legacy limitations provided by ASCII. More recently, the standard use of the typographic apostrophe is becoming more common on the Web due to the wide adoption of the

text encoding standard, higher-resolution displays, and advanced anti-aliasing of text in modern operating systems. Because typewriter apostrophes are now often automatically converted to typographic apostrophes by word processing and desktop publishing software, the typographic apostrophe does often appear in documents produced by non-professionals, albeit sometimes incorrectly—see the section "Smart Quotes" below.

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

(and hence

XHTML Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) is part of the family of XML markup languages. It mirrors or extends versions of the widely used HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the language in which Web pages are formulated. While HTML, prior ...

) defines an '

character entity reference Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

for the ASCII typewriter apostrophe. ' is officially supported in HTML since

HTML 5 HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...

. It is ''not'' defined in HTML 4 despite all the other predefined character entities from XML being defined. If it cannot be entered literally in HTML, a numeric character reference could be used instead, such as ' or '. In the HTML entity ’ the ''rsquo'' is short for right single quotation mark.

Smart quotes

To make typographic apostrophes easier to enter, word processing and publishing software often convert typewriter apostrophes to typographic apostrophes during text entry (at the same time converting opening and closing single and double quotes to their standard left-handed or right-handed forms). 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''. Such conversion is not always correct. Smart quotes features often incorrectly convert a leading apostrophe to an opening quotation mark (e.g., in abbreviations of years: ''‘29'' rather than the correct ''’29'' for the years ''1929'' or ''2029'' (depending on context); or ''‘twas'' instead of ''’twas'' as the

archaic Archaic is a period of time preceding a designated classical period, or something from an older period of time that is also not found or used currently: *List of archaeological periods **Archaic Sumerian language, spoken between 31st - 26th cent ...

abbreviation of ''it was''). Smart quote features also often fail to recognise situations when a

rather than an apostrophe is needed; for example, incorrectly rendering the latitude 49° 53′ 08″ as 49° 53’ 08”. In Microsoft Word it is possible to turn smart quotes off (in some versions, by navigating through ''Tools'', ''AutoCorrect'', ''AutoFormat as you type'', and then unchecking the appropriate option). Alternatively, typing Control-Z (for ''Undo'') immediately after entering the apostrophe will convert it back to a typewriter apostrophe. In Microsoft Word for Windows, holding down the Control key while typing two apostrophes will produce a single typographic apostrophe.

Programming

Some programming languages, like

Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...

, use the ASCII apostrophe to delimit string literals. In many languages, including

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...

ECMAScript ECMAScript (; ES) is a JavaScript standard intended to ensure the interoperability of web pages across different browsers. It is standardized by Ecma International in the documenECMA-262 ECMAScript is commonly used for client-side scripting o ...

, and

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

, either the apostrophe or the double quote may be used, allowing string literals to contain the other character (but not to contain both without using an

escape character In computing and telecommunication, an escape character is a character (computing), character that invokes an alternative interpretation on the following characters in a character sequence. An escape character is a particular case of metacharac ...

), e.g. foo = 'He said "Bar!"';. Strings delimited with apostrophes are often called ''single quoted''. Some languages, such as

Perl Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offici ...

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group ...

, and many shell languages, treat single quoted strings as "raw" strings, while double quoted strings have expressions (such as "$variable") replaced with their values when interpreted. The

C programming language ''The C Programming Language'' (sometimes termed ''K&R'', after its authors' initials) is a computer programming book written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the latter of whom originally designed and implemented the language, as well as ...

(and many derived languages like C++,

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

, C#, and Scala) uses apostrophes to delimit a

character literal A character literal is a type of literal in programming for the representation of a single character's value within the source code of a computer program. Languages that have a dedicated character data type generally include character literals; t ...

. In these languages a character is a different object than a one-letter string. In C++, since C++14, apostrophes can be included as optional digit separators in numeric literals. In

Visual Basic Visual Basic is a name for a family of programming languages from Microsoft. It may refer to: * Visual Basic .NET (now simply referred to as "Visual Basic"), the current version of Visual Basic launched in 2002 which runs on .NET * Visual Basic (cl ...

(and earlier Microsoft BASIC dialects such as QuickBASIC) an apostrophe is used to denote the start of a comment. In the

Lisp A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech. Types * A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping ...

family of programming languages, an apostrophe is shorthand for the quote operator. In

Rust Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH ...

, in addition to being used to delimit a character literal, an apostrophe can start an explicit

lifetime Lifetime may refer to: * Life expectancy, the length of time a person is expected to remain alive Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Lifetime (band), a rock band from New Jersey * ''Life Time'' (Rollins Band album), by Rollins Band * ...

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

"Obsessed with Possessives"
The Carolina Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication article on apostrophe use with possessives.
The apostrophe character
Problems representing apostrophes on computers
The Apostrophe Protection Society

The Dreaded Apostrophe: An approach using a single rule only

How to use an apostrophe
The Oatmeal
"How the Past Affects the Future: The Story of the Apostrophe"
by Christina Cavella and Robin A. Kernodle
A humorous guide to proper and improper usage of the apostropheHumble apostrophe reprieved in council U-turn , The Times
18 March 2013
The Ultimate Flowchart to Using Apostrophes (Infographic)
{{Navbox diacritical marks Latin-script diacritics English orthography Hebrew diacritics Punctuation