Punctuation apostrophe or typographic neutral single quote
Theapostrophe (’,') is apunctuation mark, and sometimes adiacritical mark, in languages that use theLatin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for three basic purposes:
The marking of the omission of one or more letters, e.g. thecontraction of "do not" to "don't"
The marking ofpossessive case of nouns (as in "the eagle's feathers", "in one month's time", "the twins' coats")
It is also used informally to indicate the units offoot andminutes of arc, although in these uses, theprime symbol is generally preferred.
The wordapostrophe comes from theGreekἡ ἀπόστροφος [προσῳδία] (hē apóstrophos [prosōidía], '[the accent of] turning away or elision'), throughLatin andFrench.[1][2]
The apostrophe was first used byPietro Bembo in his edition ofDe Aetna (1496).[3] It was introduced into English in the 16th century in imitation of French practice.[4]
Introduced byGeoffroy Tory (1529),[5] the apostrophe was used in place of a vowel letter to indicateelision (as inl'heure in place ofla heure). 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 inun' heure. Modern Frenchorthography has restored the spellingune heure.[6]
From the 16th century, following French practice, the apostrophe was used when a vowel letter was omitted either because of incidentalelision ("I'm" for "I am") or because the letter no longer represented a sound ("lov'd" for "loved").English spelling retained manyinflections that were not pronounced assyllables, notably verb endings ("-est", "-eth", "-es", "-ed") and the noun ending "-es", which marked either plurals or possessives, also known asgenitives(seePossessive apostrophe, below). An apostrophe followed by "s" was often used to mark a plural;[4] specifically, theOxford 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 inloanwords ending in a vowel (as in[...]Comma's are used,Philip Luckcombe, 1771) and in the consonantss,z,ch,sh, (as inwaltz's andcotillions,Washington Irving, 1804)...[7][8]
The use ofelision has continued to the present day, but significant changes have been made to thepossessive andplural uses. By the 18th century, an apostrophe with the addition of an "s" was regularly used for allpossessivesingular 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 theOld Englishgenitive singularinflection "-es".
The plural genitive did not use the "-es" inflection,[9] 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 theplural "s" (as in "girls' dresses"). However, this was not universally accepted until the mid-19th century.[4] 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.
The apostrophe is used in English to indicate what is, for historical reasons, misleadingly called thepossessive case in the English language. This case was called thegenitive until the 18th century and, like the genitive case in other languages, expresses relationships other thanpossession. 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 ofMerriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage:
The argument is a case of fooling oneself with one's own terminology. After the 18th-century grammarians began to refer to the genitive case as the possessive case, grammarians and other commentators got it into their heads that the only use of the case was to show possession[...] Simply changing the name of the genitive does not change or eliminate any of its multiple functions.[10]
This dictionary also cites a study[11] that found that only 40% of the possessive forms were used to indicate actual possession.[12]
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'". One would therefore say "I drank the glass's contents" to indicate drinking from one glass, but "I drank the glasses' contents" after also drinking from another glass.
For singular forms, the modern possessive orgenitive inflection is a survival fromcertain genitive inflections in Old English, for which the apostrophe originally marked the loss of the old "e" (for example,lambes becamelamb's). Its use for indicating plural "possessive" forms was not standard before the middle of the 19th century.[citation needed]
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/s/ or/z/ 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".
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 detailsbelow).
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".
When the noun is a normal plural, with an added "s", no extra "s" is added in the possessive, and it is pronounced accordingly; 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"), "dice" (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: "seventitmice'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".[note 1]
Compound nouns have their singular possessives formed with an apostrophe and an addeds, in accordance with the rules given above:the Attorney-General's husband;theLord Warden of the Cinque Ports's prerogative;this Minister for Justice's intervention;her father-in-law's new wife.
In such examples, the plurals are formed with ans that does not occur at the end: e.g.,attorneys-general. A problem therefore arises with thepossessive plurals of these compounds. Sources that rule on the matter appear to favour the following forms, in which there is both ans 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.[13][14][15] Because these constructions stretch the resources of punctuation beyond comfort, in practice they are normally reworded:interventions by successive Ministers for Justice.[16][17]
For two nouns (or noun phrases) joined byand, 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").[18]
Some grammars make no distinction in meaning between the two forms.[note 2] 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".[note 3] 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.[18]
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").[18][19] 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").[18] Where a construction like "Jack's and your dogs" is used, the interpretation is usually "segregatory" (i.e. not joint possession).[19]
If the word or compound includes, or ends with, a punctuation mark, an apostrophe and ans are still added in the usual way: "Westward Ho!'s railway station"; "Awaye!'s Paulette Whitten recorded Bob Wilson's story";[23][24]Washington, D.C.'s museums.[25] (assuming that the prevailing style requires full stops inD.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;themaster 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 withs occurs at the end, it is left by itself to serve both purposes:Our employees are better paid than McDonald's employees;Standard & Poor's indices are widely used: the fixed forms ofMcDonald's andStandard & Poor's already include possessive apostrophes. For similar cases involving geographical names, seebelow.
Similarly, the possessives of all phrases whose wording is fixed are formed in the same way:
An apostrophe is used in time and money references in constructions such asone 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 meansa respite of one hour (exactly asthe cat's whiskers meansthe whiskers of the cat).
No apostrophe is used in the following possessive pronouns and adjectives:hers,his,its,my,mine,ours,theirs,whose, andyours. All other possessive pronouns do end with an apostrophe and ans. In singular forms, the apostrophe comes first, e.g.one's;everyone's;somebody's,nobody else's, etc., while the apostrophe follows thes in plural forms as with nouns:the others' complaints.
The possessive ofit was originallyit's, in contrast to the modernits. The apostrophe was dropped by the early 19th century. Authorities are now unanimous thatit's can be only a contraction ofit is orit has.[26][note 6] Despite this, usingit's as a possessive pronoun is a commongrammatical error in present times.
Some singular nouns are pronounced with asibilant sound at the end: /s/ or /z/. The spelling of these ends with-s,-se,-z,-ze,-ce,-x, or-xe.
Most respected authorities recommend that practically all singular nouns, including those ending with a sibilant sound, have possessive forms with an extras after the apostrophe so that the spelling reflects the underlying pronunciation. Examples includeOxford University Press, theModern Language Association, theBBC andThe Economist.[28] Such authorities demand possessive singulars like these:Bridget Jones's Diary;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 extras; these exceptions are supported by theYahoo! Style Guide,[29] andThe American Heritage Book of English Usage.[30] Such sources permit possessive singulars like these:Socrates' later suggestion; orAchilles' heel if that is how the pronunciation is intended. The style guides ofThe Economist[31] andThe Guardian[32] omit the extra s in this case.
Some style guides advise that Classical, biblical, and similar names ending in a sibilant, especially if they arepolysyllabic, should not take an addeds in the possessive; among sources giving exceptions of this kind areThe Times[33] andThe Elements of Style, which make general stipulations, andVanderbilt University,[34] which mentions onlyMoses andJesus. As a particular case,Jesus' – referred to as "an accepted liturgical archaism" inHart's Rules – is commonly written instead ofJesus's.
Although less common, some contemporary writers still follow the older practice of omitting the seconds in some cases ending with a sibilant, but usually not when written-x or-xe.[35] The Associated Press Stylebook[36] recommends or allows the practice of omitting the additional "s" inproper nouns ending with an "s", but not in words ending with other sibilants ("z" and "x").[37] The 15th edition ofThe 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 extras after a polysyllabic word ending in a sibilant, but the 16th edition no longer recommends omitting the possessive "s".[38]
Similar examples of notable names ending in ans that are often given a possessive apostrophe with no additionals includeDickens andWilliams. There is often a policy of leaving off the additionals on any such name, but this can prove problematic when specific names are contradictory (for example,St James' Park inNewcastle [the football ground] and the area ofSt James's Park 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 sectionbelow.
Some writers like to reflect standard spoken practice in cases like these withsake: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.[39] Still others prefer to omit the apostrophe when there is ans sound beforesake:for morality's sake, butfor convenience sake.[40]
The English possessive of French nouns ending in a silents,x, orz is addressed by various style guides. Certainly a sibilant is pronounced in examples likeDescartes's andDumas's; the question addressed here is whethers needs to be added. Similar examples withx orz:Sauce Périgueux's main ingredient is truffle;Hispince-nez's loss went unnoticed;"Verreaux('s) eagle, a large, predominantly black eagle,Aquila verreauxi,..." (OED, entry for "Verreaux", with silentx; seeVerreaux's eagle); in each of these some writers might omit the addeds. The same principles and residual uncertainties apply with "naturalised" English words, likeIllinois andArkansas.[41]
For possessiveplurals of words ending in a silentx,z ors, the few authorities that address the issue at all typically call for an addeds and suggest that the apostrophe precede thes:The Loucheux's homeland is in the Yukon;Compare the two Dumas's literary achievements.[note 7] The possessive of a cited French title with a silent plural ending is uncertain: "Trois femmes's long and complicated publication history",[42] but "Les noces' singular effect was 'exotic primitive' ..." (with nearby sibilants-ce- innoces ands- insingular).[43] 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.
Place names in the United States do not use the possessive apostrophe on federal maps and signs.[44] TheUnited States Board on Geographic Names, which has responsibility for formal naming of municipalities and geographic features, has deprecated the use of possessive apostrophes since 1890 so as not to show ownership of the place.[44][45] Only five names of natural features in the US are officially spelled with a genitive apostrophe:Martha's Vineyard;Ike's Point, New Jersey;John E's Pond, Rhode Island;Carlos Elmer's Joshua View, Arizona; andClark's Mountain, Oregon.[45][46] Some municipalities, originally incorporated using the apostrophe, have dropped it in accordance with this policy;Taylors Falls in Minnesota, for example, was originally incorporated as "Taylor's Falls".[47] On the state level, the federal policy is not always followed:Vermont's official state website has a page onCamel's Hump State Forest.[48]
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.[52] Practice in the United Kingdom and Canada is not so uniform.[53]
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, butInternational Aviation Womens Association;[54]Magistrates' Court of Victoria,[55] butFederated 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.[note 8] As the case ofwomens shows, it is not possible to analyze these forms simply as non-possessive plurals, sincewomen is the only correct plural form ofwoman.
Where a business name is based on a family name it should in theory take an apostrophe, but many leave it out (contrastSainsbury's withHarrods). 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 ans at the end is also a name, such as Parson. A small activist group called theApostrophe Protection Society[56] has campaigned for large retailers such as Harrods,Currys, andSelfridges to reinstate their missing punctuation. A spokesperson forBarclays PLC stated, "It has just disappeared over the years. Barclays is no longer associated with the family name."[57] 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 asCadwalader's.
An apostrophe is commonly used to indicate omitted characters, normally letters:
It is used incontractions, such ascan't fromcannot,it's fromit is orit has, andI'll fromI will orI shall.[58]
It is used inabbreviations, asgov't forgovernment. It may indicate omitted numbers where the spoken form is also capable of omissions, as'70s for1970s representingseventies fornineteen-seventies. In modern usage, apostrophes are generally omitted when letters are removed from the start of a word, particularly for acompound word. For example, it is not common to write'bus (foromnibus),'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 forabout,'less forunless,'twas forit was). Sometimes a misunderstanding of the original form of a word results in a non-standard contraction. A common example:'til foruntil, thoughtill is in fact the original form, anduntil is derived from it.
The spellingfo'c's'le, contracted from the nautical termforecastle, is unusual for having three apostrophes. The spellingbo's'n's (fromboatswain's), as inBo's'n's Mate, also has three apostrophes, two showing omission and one possession.Fo'c's'le may also take a possessives – as inthe fo'c's'le's timbers – giving four apostrophes in one word.[59] A word which formerly contained two apostrophes issha'n'tforshall not, examples of which may be found in the older works ofP. G. Wodehouse and "Frank Richards" (Charles Hamilton), but this has been superseded byshan't.
Shortenings with more apostrophes, such asy'all'dn't've (y'all wouldn't have), are possible, particularly inSouthern US dialects.[60]
It is sometimes used when the normal form of an inflection seems awkward or unnatural; for example,KO'd rather thanKOed (whereKO is used as a verb meaning "to knock out"); "a sparepince-nez'd man" (cited inOED, 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 abbreviated as "W'hampton" andKidderminster as "K'minster".[61]
TheUnited States Board on Geographic Names, 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".[62]
An apostrophe can be used in the plural form of a single letter, as seen in the team logo of theOakland A's.
Following an evolution in usage in the 20th century, today "the apostrophe of plurality continues in at least five areas":[8] abbreviations, letters of the alphabet/small words, numbers, family names, and innon-standard use.
For abbreviations, including acronyms, the use ofs 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", soG.M.'s is preferred toG.M.s.[63] TheOxford Companion to the English Language condonesV.I.P.'s,VIP's, andVIPs equally.[8]
For single lowercase letters, pluralization with's is usual.[64][65][66] 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").[67]The Chicago Manual of Style recommends the apostrophe of plurality only for lowercase letters.[68] Sometimes, adding justs rather than's may leave meaning ambiguous or presentation inelegant. However, an apostrophe is not always the preferred solution.[69]APA style requires the use of italics instead of an apostrophe:ps,ns, etc.[70]
In the phrasedos and don'ts, most modern style guides disparage spelling the first word asdo'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".[8]
TheOxford Companion to the English Language notes that "a plurals after a set of numbers is often preceded by an apostrophe, as in3's and 4's..., but many housestyles and individuals now favour3s and 4s".[8] Most style guides prefer the lack of apostrophe for groups of years (e.g.1980s)[71] and will prefer90s or'90s over90's or'90's.[72][73]
While many guides discourage using an apostrophe in all numbers/dates,[74] many other guidesencourage using an apostrophe for numbers or are divided on the issue; for example, theAustralian Government Style Manual recommends "Binary code uses 0’s and 1’s" but recommends "the 2020s".[75] 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,[76] and slightly prefers1's and 7's over1s 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.[71] The addition of ans without an apostrophe may make the text difficult to read.[76]
For many numbers and symbols, a useful alternative is to write out the numbers as words (e.g.thousands instead of1000's or1000s, andampersands instead of&s or&'s).
The vast majority of English references published from the late 20th century onwards disparage the use of apostrophes in family-name plurals, for example identifyingJoneses as correct andJones's as incorrect. As an exception, theOxford Companion to the English Language (2018) reports that, in addition toJoneses etc., standard apostrophe usage does continue "in family names, especially if they end in-s, as inkeeping up with the Jones's".[8]
Names that are not strictly native to English sometimes have an apostrophe substituted to represent other characters (see alsoAs a mark of elision, below).
Anglicised versions ofIrish surnames typically contain an apostrophe after anO (in place ofÓ), for example "Dara O'Briain" forDara ÓBríain.
SomeScottish andIrish surnames use an apostrophe after anM, for exampleM'Gregor. The apostrophe here may be seen as marking a contraction where the prefixMc orMac 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 superscriptc when printing with hand-set metal type. Compare:M'Lean, McLean, M‘Lean.[77]
Intransliterated foreign words, an apostrophe may be used to separate letters or syllables that otherwise would likely be interpreted incorrectly. For example:
in theArabic wordmus'haf, a transliteration ofمصحف, the syllables are as inmus·haf, notmu·shaf
in the Japanese nameShin'ichi, the apostrophe shows that the pronunciation isshi·n·i·chi (hiraganaしんいち), where the lettersn (ん) andi (い) are separatemorae, rather thanshi·ni·chi (しにち).
in the ChinesePinyin romanization, the apostrophe (',隔音符號, géyīn fúhào, 'syllable-dividing mark') is used before a syllable starting with a vowel (a,o, ore) in a multiple-syllable word when the syllable does not start the word (which is most commonly realized as[ɰ]), unless the syllable immediately follows ahyphen or other dash.[78] This is done to remove ambiguity that could arise, as inXi'an, which consists of the two syllablesxi ("西")an ("安"), compared to such words asxian ("先"). (This ambiguity does not occur when tone marks are used: The two tone marks inXīān unambiguously show that the word consists of two syllables. However, even with tone marks, the city is usually spelled with an apostrophe asXī'ān.)
Furthermore, an apostrophe may be used to indicate aglottal stop in transliterations. For example:
in the Arabic wordQur'an, a common transliteration of (part of)القرآنal-qur'ān, the apostrophe corresponds to the diacriticmaddah over the'alif, one of the letters in theArabic alphabet. An'alif by itself would indicate the long vowelā, and themaddah adds a glottal stop.
in the Arabic wordKa'aba forالكعبةal-kaʿbah, the apostrophe corresponds to the Arabic letterʿayn.
Finally, in "scientific" transliteration of Cyrillic script, the apostrophe usually represents thesoft signь, though in "ordinary" transliteration it is usually omitted. For example,
"TheOb River (Russian: Обь), also Ob', is a major river in western Siberia."
Sign atLeeds railway station, England, with an extraneous apostrophe crossed outAdvertisement with three superfluous apostrophes
If you have a name that ends in "s," or if you will observe home-made signs selling tomatoes or chili-and-beans, you will quickly note what can be done with a possessive apostrophe in reckless hands.
Failure to observe standard use of the apostrophe is widespread and frequently criticised as incorrect,[80][81] often generating heated debate. The British founder of theApostrophe Protection Society earned a 2001Ig Nobel prize for "efforts to protect, promote and defend the differences between plural and possessive".[82] A 2004 report byBritish examination board OCR stated that "the inaccurate use of the apostrophe is so widespread as to be almost universal".[83] A 2008 survey found that nearly half of the UK adults polled were unable to use the apostrophe correctly.[81]
Apostrophes used in a non-standard manner to formnounplurals are known asgreengrocers' apostrophes orgrocers' apostrophes, often written asgreengrocer's apostrophes[84] orgrocer's apostrophes.[85] They are sometimes humorously calledgreengrocers apostrophe's,rogue apostrophes, oridiot's apostrophes (a literal translation of theGerman wordDeppenapostroph, which criticises the misapplication of apostrophes inDenglisch). The practice, once common and acceptable (seeHistorical development), comes from the identical sound of theplural andpossessive forms of most Englishnouns. It is often criticised as a form ofhypercorrection coming from a widespread ignorance of the proper use of the apostrophe or of punctuation in general.Lynne Truss, author ofEats, Shoots & Leaves, points out that before the 19th century it was standard orthography to use the apostrophe to form a plural of a foreign-sounding word that ended in a vowel (e.g., banana's, folio's, logo's, quarto's, pasta's, ouzo's) to clarify pronunciation. Truss says this usage is no longer considered proper in formal writing.[86]
The term is believed to have been coined in the middle of the 20th century by a teacher of languages working inLiverpool, at a time when such mistakes were common in the handwritten signs and advertisements ofgreengrocers (e.g.,Apple's1/- a pound, Orange's 1/6d 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.[87]
The same use of apostrophe beforenounplural -s forms is sometimes made by non-native speakers of English. For example, inDutch, the apostrophe is inserted before thes when pluralising most words ending in a vowel ory for example,baby's (Englishbabies) andradio's (Englishradios). This often produces so-called "Dunglish" errors when carried over into English.[88]Hyperforeignism has been formalised in some pseudo-anglicisms. For example, the French wordpin's (from Englishpin) is used (with the apostrophe in both singular and plural) forcollectiblelapel pins. Similarly, there is anAndorran football club calledFC Rànger's (after such British clubs asRangers F.C.) and a Japanese dance group calledSuper Monkey's.
In the UK there is a tendency to drop apostrophes in many commonly used names such asSt Annes, St Johns Lane,[89] and so on.
UK supermarket chainTesco omits the mark where standard practice would require it. Signs in Tesco advertise (among other items) "mens magazines", "girls toys", "kids books" and "womens shoes". In his bookTroublesome Words, authorBill Bryson lambasts Tesco for this, stating that "the mistake is inexcusable, and those who make it are linguisticNeanderthals."[90]
George Bernard Shaw, a proponent ofEnglish spelling reform on phonetic principles, argued that the apostrophe was mostly redundant. He did not use it for spellingcant,hes, etc., in many of his writings. He did, however, allowI'm andit's.[94]Hubert Selby Jr. used a slash instead of an apostrophe mark for contractions and did not use an apostrophe at all for possessives.Lewis Carroll made greater use of apostrophes, and frequently usedsha'n't, with an apostrophe in place of the elidedll as well as the more usualo.[95][96] These authors' usages have not become widespread.
The British pop groupHear'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".[97]
Over the years, the use of apostrophes has been criticised. George Bernard Shaw called them "uncouth bacilli", referring to the apostrophe-like shape of manybacteria. The author and language commentatorAnu Garg 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."[98] In his bookAmerican Speech, linguist Steven Byington stated of the apostrophe that "the language would be none the worse for its abolition". Adrian Room, in hisEnglish Journal article "Axing the Apostrophe", argued that apostrophes are unnecessary, and context will resolve any ambiguity.[99] In a letter to theEnglish Journal, Peter Brodie stated that apostrophes are "largely decorative ... [and] rarely clarify meaning".[100]John C. Wells, emeritus professor of phonetics atUniversity College London, says the apostrophe is "a waste of time".[101] The Apostrophe Protection Society, founded by retired journalist John Richards in 2001, was brought to a full stop in 2019, after a period of 18 years in activity. Concerning that, Richards—then aged 96, and dashed by its unsuccess—exclaimed that "the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won!"[102]
In many languages, especially European languages, the apostrophe is used to indicate theelision of one or more sounds, as in English.
InAlbanian, 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,t'i: them (fromtë + i: them),m'i mori (frommë + i mori). It is used too in some of the forms of possessive pronouns, for example:s'ëmës (fromsë ëmës).
InAfrikaans, 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'n, which is a contraction ofeen meaning 'one' (the number). As the initiale is omitted and cannot be capitalised, the second word in a sentence that begins with'n is capitalised instead. For example:'n Boom is groen, 'A tree is green'. In addition, the apostrophe is used for plurals and diminutives where the root ends with longvowels, e.g.foto's,taxi's,Lulu's,Lulu'tjie, etc.[104]
InCatalan,French,Italian,Ligurian, andOccitan word sequences such as(coup) d'état,(maître) d'hôtel (often shortened tomaître d', when used in English),L'Aquila,L'Alpe d'Huez andL'Hospitalet de Llobregat 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 amute h.French elision similarly occurs withqu'il instead ofque il ('that he'),c'est instead ofce est ('it is' / 'it's'), and so on. Catalan, French, Italian, and Occitan surnames sometimes contain apostrophes of elision, e.g.d’Alembert,D'Angelo.
French feminine singularpossessive adjectives do not undergo such elision anymore, but change to the masculine form instead:ma precedingéglise becomesmon église ('my church').[note 9]
Quebec'sBill 101, which dictates the use ofFrench 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 chainTim Hortons, originally spelled with the possessive apostrophe as Tim Horton's, was required to drop the apostrophe in Quebec to comply with Bill 101).[105]
InDanish, apostrophes are sometimes seen oncommercial materials. One might commonly seeTa' mig med ('Take me with [you]') next to a stand with advertisement leaflets; that would be writtenTag mig med in standard orthography. As in German, the apostrophe must not be used to indicate the possessive, except when there is already ans,x orz present in the base form, as inEsajas' bog ('the Book of Esajas').
InDutch, as in Afrikaans, the apostrophe is used to indicate omitted characters. For example, the indefinite articleeen can be shortened to'n, and the definite articlehet shortened to't. When this happens in the first word of a sentence, thesecond word of the sentence is capitalised. In general, this way of using the apostrophe is considered non-standard, except asgenitivus temporalis in's morgens,'s middags,'s avonds,'s nachts (fordes morgens, des middags, des avonds, des nachts, 'at morning, at afternoon, at evening, at night') and in some frozen place names such as's-Hertogenbosch (possessive, lit. "TheDuke's forest"),'s-Gravenhage (traditional name ofThe Hague, lit. "TheCount'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 longvowels, e.g.foto's,taxi's; and for the genitive of proper names ending with these vowels, e.g.Anna's,Otto's. These are in fact elided vowels; use of the apostrophe prevents spellings likefotoos andAnnaas. However, mostdiminutives do not use an apostrophe where the plural forms would; producing spellings such asfotootje andtaxietje.
InEsperanto, theFundamento limits the elision mark to the definite articlel' (fromla) and singular nominative nouns (kor' fromkoro, 'heart'). This is mostly confined to poetry and songs. Idiomatic phrases such asdank' al (from(kun) danko al, 'thanks to') anddel' (fromde la 'of the') are nonetheless frequent. In-word elision is usually marked with ahyphen, as inD-ro (fromdoktoro, 'Dr'). Some early guides used and advocated the use of apostrophes between word parts, to aid recognition of suchcompound words asgitar'ist'o, 'guitarist'; but in the latter case, modern usage is to use either a hyphen or a middle dot when disambiguation is necessary, as inĉas-hundo orĉas·hundo, "a hunting dog", not to be mispronounced asĉa.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 wordraaka ("raw") becomesraa'at in the plural. The apostrophe shows that the identical vowels on either side of it belong to different syllables.
TheGalician language standard admits the use of the apostrophe (apóstrofo) for contractions that normally do not use it (e.g.: de + a= da), when the second element begins a proper noun, generally a title:o argumento d'A Esmorga (the plot of A Esmorga [title of a novel]).[106] They are also used to reproduce oral elisions and, as stated below, to join (or split) commercial names of popular public establishments such as restaurants (O'Pote, The pot).
InGanda, when a word ending with avowel is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, the final vowel of the first word iselided and the initial vowel of the second wordlengthened in compensation. When the first word is amonosyllable, this elision is represented in the orthography with an apostrophe: intaata w'abaana 'the father of the children',wa ('of') becomes w'; iny'ani? ('who is it?'),ye ('who') becomes y'. But the final vowel of apolysyllable is always written, even if it is elided in speech:omusajja oyo ('this man'), not *omusajj'oyo, becauseomusajja ('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 inMax' Vater, or "to prevent ambiguities" in all other possessive cases of names, as inAndrea's Blumenladen (referring to the female nameAndrea, not the male nameAndreas). 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 derogatoryDeppenapostroph ('idiot's apostrophe';see the articleApostrophitis in German Wikipedia).
In modern printings ofAncient Greek, 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 writeδἄλλος (d'állos) forδὲ ἄλλος (dè állos) andἆροὐ (âr' ou) forἆρα οὐ (âra ou). Such modern usage should be carefully distinguished frompolytonic Greek's nativerough andsmooth breathing marks, which usually appear as a form of rounded apostrophe.
InHebrew, thegeresh (׳), often typed as an apostrophe, is used to denote abbreviations. A doublegeresh (״), known by the dual formgershayim, is used to denoteacronyms orinitialisms; it is inserted before (i.e., to the right of) the last letter of the acronym. Examples:פרופ׳ (abbreviation forפרופסור, 'professor', 'professor');נ״ב (nun-bet, 'P.S.'). Thegeresh 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:אנ׳לא (anlo – short forאני לא,ani lo, 'I am/do not').
In Irish, the past tense of verbs beginning with a vowel, or withfh followed by a vowel, begins withd'(elision ofdo), for exampledo oscail becomesd'oscail ('opened') anddo fhill becomesd'fhill ('returned'). Thecopulais is often elided to's, anddo ('to'),mo ('my') etc. are elided beforef and vowels.
InItalian it is used for elision with pronouns, as inl'ha instead ofla ha; with articles, as inl'opera instead ofla opera; and for truncation, as inpo' instead ofpoco. Stylistically, sentences beginning with È (as inÈ vero che ...) are often rendered as E' in newspapers, to minimiseleading (inter-line spacing).
In modernNorwegian, the apostrophe marks that a word has been contracted, such asha'kke fromhar ikke ('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[ʂ]. As Norwegian does not 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 havemann ('man') andmanns ('man's'), without apostrophe, butlos ('naval pilot') andlos' ('naval pilot's'). Indicating the possessive for the two former American presidents named George Bush, whose names end in[ʂ], could be written as bothBushs (simply adding an -s to the name) andBush' (adding an apostrophe to the end of the name).[clarification needed]
InPortuguese the apostrophe is used to reproduce certain popular pronunciations such ass'enxerga (pay attention to yourself) or in a few combinations of word, when there is the suppression of the vowel of the prepositionde in certain compound words (the ones formed by two or more stems) such ascaixa-d'água ('water tower'),galinha-d'angola ('guineafowl'),pau-d'alho (a plant species,Gallesia integrifolia),estrela-d'alva ('morning star'), etc. Portuguese has many contractions between prepositions and articles or pronouns (likena forem +a), but these are written without an apostrophe. Also, the apostrophe is most commonly not used in the wordpra, the reduced or popular form of the prepositionpara (but some advocate for its used in preposition + article contractions:para + a = p'ra/pra,para + o = p'ro/pro, etc.[107]).
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.[note 10] Instead Spanish writes out the spoken elision in full (de enero,mi hijo) except for the contractiondel forde +el, andal fora +el, which use no apostrophe.
InSwedish, the apostrophe marks an elision, such aspå sta'n, short forpå staden ('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.S:t Erik forSankt Erik 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 ans,x orz present in the base form, as inLukas' bok.
Welsh uses the apostrophe to mark elision of the definite articleyr ('the') following a vowel (a,e,i,o,u,y, or, in Welsh,w), as ini'r tŷ, 'to the house'. It is also used with the particleyn, such as withmae hi'n, 'she is'.
Several languages and transliteration systems use the apostrophe or some similar mark to indicate aglottal stop, sometimes considering it a letter of the alphabet:
In severalFinno-Ugric languages, such asEstonian andFinnish; for example in the Finnish wordraa’an, being the genitive or accusative ofraaka ('raw').
InGuarani, it is calledpuso/puˈso/, and used in the wordsñe'ẽ (language, to speak),ka'a (grass),a'ỹ (sterile).
InHawaiian, theʻokina⟨ʻ⟩, an inverted apostrophe, is often rendered as⟨'⟩. It is considered a letter of the alphabet.
In theTongan language, the apostrophe is called afakauʻa and is the last letter of the alphabet. It represents the glottal stop. Like the ʻokina, it is inverted.
InVõro, the apostrophe is used in parallel with the letterq as symbol of plural, for examplemajaq ormaja' ('houses'), imperativeannaq oranna', and in all other word forms with glottal stop.
The apostrophe represents sounds resembling the glottal stop in theTurkic languages and in someromanizations ofSemitic languages, includingArabic andHebrew. In that case, the letter'ayn (Arabic ع and Hebrew ע) is correspondingly transliterated with the opening single quotation mark.
InBelarusian andUkrainian, the apostrophe is used between a consonant and a following "soft" (iotated) vowel (Be.:е,ё,ю,я; Uk.:є,ї,ю,я) to indicate thatno 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/j/ 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:⟨п'ять⟩ (p"jat') 'five',⟨від'їзд⟩ (vid"jizd) 'departure',⟨об'єднаний⟩ (ob"jednanyj) 'united',⟨з'ясувати⟩ (z"jasuvaty) 'to clear up, explain',⟨п'єса⟩ (p"jesa) play (drama), etc.[108][109]
InRussian and some derived alphabets, the same function has been served by thehard sign (ъ, formerly calledyer). But the apostrophe saw some use as a substitute after 1918, when Soviet authorities enforced an orthographic reform by confiscatingmovable type bearing the hard sign from stubborn printing houses in Petrograd.[110]
In someLatin transliterations of certainCyrillic alphabets (forBelarusian,Russian, andUkrainian), the apostrophe is used to replace thesoft sign (ь, indicating palatalization of the preceding consonant), e.g.,Русь is transliteratedRus' according to theBGN/PCGN system. (Theprime symbol is also used for the same purpose.) Some of these transliteration schemes use adouble apostrophe ( ˮ ) to represent the apostrophe in Ukrainian and Belarusian text and the hard sign (ъ) in Russian text, e.g. Ukrainianслов'янське ('Slavic') is transliterated asslov"jans'ke.
SomeKarelian orthographies use an apostrophe to indicate palatalization, e.g.n'evvuo ('to give advice'),d'uuri ('just (like)'),el'vüttiä ('to revive').
InVõro an apostrophe is often (also in the Võro Wikipedia) used as a simplification to replace the regular Võro palatalization mark which is the accute accent, for exampleas'aq replacing regular formaśaq ('things').
Some languages use the apostrophe to separate theroot of a word and itsaffixes, especially if the root is foreign and unassimilated. (For another kind of morphemic separation seepinyin, below.)
InDanish an apostrophe is sometimes used to join theencliticdefinite article to words of foreign origin, or to other words that would otherwise look awkward. For example, one would writeIP'en to mean "theIP address". There is some variation in what is considered "awkward enough" to warrant an apostrophe; for instance, long-established words such asfirma ('company') orniveau ('level') might be writtenfirma'et andniveau'et, 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.CD-en (the CD).
InEstonian, apostrophes can be used in the declension of some foreign names to separate the stem from anydeclension endings; e.g.,Monet' (genitive case) orMonet'sse (illative case) ofMonet (name of the famous painter).
InFinnish, 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.show'ssa ('in a show'),Bordeaux'hon ('to Bordeaux'). For Finnish as well asSwedish, there is a closely relateduse of the colon.
InPolish, the apostrophe is used exclusively for marking inflections of words and word-like elements (but notacronyms – 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 writeKampania Ala Gore'a for "Al Gore's campaign". In this example,Ala is spelled without an apostrophe, since its spelling and pronunciation fit into normal Polish rules; butGore'a needs the apostrophe, becausee disappears from the pronunciation, changing the inflection pattern. This rule is often misunderstood as calling for an apostrophe afterall foreign words, regardless of their pronunciation, yielding the incorrectKampania Al'a Gore'a, for example. The effect is akin to the greengrocers' apostrophe (see above).
InWelsh the apostrophe is used with infixed pronouns in order to distinguish them from the preceding word (e.g.a'm chwaer, 'and my sister' as opposed toam chwaer, 'about a sister').
InBreton, the combinationcʼh is used for the consonant/x/ (likech inScottish EnglishLoch Ness), whilech is used for the consonant/ʃ/ (as in Frenchchat or Englishshe).
InCzech, 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 ofčetl ('he read'), the word formčet' is used.Čet' is the informal variant of the verb formčetl, at least in some varieties.[112] 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 below holds for lowercaset andd, and for the two-digit year notation.
InFinnish, one of theconsonant gradation patterns is the change of ak into ahiatus, e.g.keko →keon ('a pile' → 'a pile's'). This hiatus has to be indicated in spelling with an apostrophe if a long vowel (represented by doubling (e.g.oo) or the final vowel of a diphthong (e.g.uo) would be immediately followed by the same vowel, e.g.ruoko →ruo'on,vaaka →vaa'an. (This is in contrast to compound words, where the problem of a vowel recurring over a syllable break is solved with ahyphen, e.g.maa-ala, 'land area'.) Similarly, the apostrophe is used to mark thehiatus (contraction) that occurs in poetry, e.g.miss' on formissä on ('where is').
InGanda,ng' (pronounced/ŋ/) is used in place ofŋ on keyboards where this character is not available. The apostrophe distinguishes it from the letter combinationng (pronounced[ŋɡ]), which has separate use in the language. Compare this with the Swahili usage below.
InHebrew, thegeresh (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 theHebrew alphabet: Sounds such as/dʒ/ (Englishj as injob),/θ/ (Englishth as inthigh), and/tʃ/ (Englishch as incheck) are indicated using ג, ת, and צ with ageresh (informallychupchik). For example, the nameGeorge is spelledג׳ורג׳ in Hebrew (withג׳ representing the first and last consonants).
To denote aHebrew numeral (e.g.,נ׳, which stands for '50')
To denote a Hebrew letter which stands for itself (e.g.,מ׳ – the lettermem)
Gershayim (a double geresh) to denote a Hebrew letter name (e.g.,למ״ד – the letterlamed)
Another (rarer) use of geresh is to denote the last syllable (which in some cases, but not all, is asuffix) in some words ofYiddishorigin (e.g.,חבר׳ה, מיידל׳ה).
In Italian, an apostrophe is sometimes used as a substitute for agrave or anacute accent. 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 beginningÈ vero che ... ('It is true that...') may be written asE' vero che .... This form is often seen in newspapers, as it is the only case of an accent above thecap height and its omission permits the text to be more closely spaced (leading). Less commonly, a forename likeNiccolò might be rendered asNiccolo', orNICCOLO';perché, asperche', orPERCHE'. This applies only to machine or computer writing, in the absence of a suitable keyboard.
InJèrriais, one of the uses of the apostrophe is to markgemination, or consonant length: For example,t't represents/tː/,s's/sː/,n'n/nː/,th'th/ðː/, andch'ch/ʃː/ (contrasted with/t/,/s/,/n/,/ð/, and/ʃ/).
InLithuanian, the apostrophe is occasionally used to add a Lithuanized ending on an international word, e.g.- "parking'as", "Skype'as", "Facebook'as".
In standardLojban orthography, the apostrophe is a letter in its own right (calledy'y[əhə]) that can appear only between two vowels, and is phonemically realised as either[h] or, more rarely,[θ].
InMacedonian the apostrophe is sometimes used to represent the soundschwa, which can be found on dialectal levels, but not in the Standard Macedonian.
InSlovak, thecaron over lowercaset,d,l, and uppercaseLconsonants resembles an apostrophe, for example,ď,ť,ľ, andĽ. This is especially so in certain common typographic renderings. But it is non-standard to use an apostrophe instead of the caron. There is alsol with an acute accent:ĺ,Ĺ. In Slovak the apostrophe is properly used only to indicateelision in certain words (tys', as an abbreviated form ofty si ('you are'), orhor' forhore ('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):'87 (usually used for 1987).
InSwahili, an apostrophe afterng shows that there is no sound of/ɡ/ after the/ŋ/ sound; that is, that theng is pronounced as in Englishsinger, not as in Englishfinger.
In the newUzbek Latin alphabet adopted in 2000, the apostrophe serves as adiacritical mark to distinguish different phonemes written with the same letter: it differentiateso' (corresponding to Cyrillicў) fromo, andg' (Cyrillicғ) fromg. This avoids the use of special characters, allowing Uzbek to be typed with ease in ordinaryASCII on any Latin keyboard. In addition, a postvocalic apostrophe in Uzbek represents the glottal stop phoneme derived from Arabichamzah or'ayn, replacing Cyrillicъ.
In EnglishYorkshire dialect, the apostrophe is used to represent the wordthe, which is contracted to a more glottal (or 'unreleased') /t/ sound. Most users will writein t'barn ('in the barn'),on t'step ('on the step'); and those unfamiliar with Yorkshire speech will often make these sound likeintuh barn andontuh step. A more accurate rendition might bein't barn andon't step, though even this does not truly convey correct Yorkshire pronunciation as thet is more like aglottal stop.
In thepinyin (hànyǔ pīnyīn) system ofromanization forStandard Chinese, 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 cityXī'ān includes an apostrophe to distinguish it from a single-syllable wordxian. More strictly, however, it is standard to place an apostrophe only before everya,e, oro that starts a new syllable after the first if it is not preceded by a hyphen or a dash. Examples:Tiān'ānmén,Yǎ'ān; but simplyJǐnán, in which the syllables areji andnan, since the absence of an apostrophe shows that the syllables are notjin andan (contrastJīn'ān).[114] This is a kind of morpheme-separation marking (seeabove).
In the largely supersededWade–Giles romanization for Standard Chinese, an apostrophe marksaspiration of the preceding consonant sound. Example: intsê (pinyinze) the consonant represented byts is unaspirated, but ints'ê (pinyince) the consonant represented byts' is aspirated. Some academic users of the system write this character as aspiritus asper (ʽ or ʻ) or single left (opening)quotation mark (‘).
In some systems of romanization for the Japanese, the apostrophe is used betweenmoras in ambiguous situations, to differentiate between, for example,na andn + a. (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 aglottal stop (for exampleMitth'raw'nuruodo inStar Wars), but also sometimes simply for decoration.
The shape of the apostrophe originated inmanuscript writing, as a point with a downwards tail curving clockwise. This form was inherited by thetypographic apostrophe,’, also known as thetypeset apostrophe (or, informally, thecurly apostrophe). Latersans-serif 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 thetypewriter, 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 singlequotation marks, the singleprimes, and on some typewriters even theexclamation point (by backspacing and overprinting with a period). This is known as thetypewriter apostrophe orvertical apostrophe. The same convention was adopted for doublequotation marks ("). Both simplifications carried over to computer keyboards and theASCII character set.
Formally, the symbol used to represent afoot of length, depth, or height, is′ (prime) and that for theinch is″ (double prime).[115] (Thus, for example, the notation5′ 7″ signifies 5 feet and 7 inches). Similarly, the prime symbol is the formal representation of aminute of arc (1/60 of adegree ingeometry andgeomatics), and double prime represents asecond of arc (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, withx′ 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 results in another variant when a prime symbol was intended.
U+0027'APOSTROPHE: The typewriter or ASCII apostrophe. The standard remarks:
For historical reasons, U+0027 is a particularly overloaded character. In ASCII, it is used to represent a punctuation mark (such as right single quotation mark, left single quotation mark, apostrophe punctuation, vertical line, or prime) or a modifier letter (such as apostrophe modifier or acute accent). Punctuation marks generally break words; modifier letters generally are considered part of a word.[116]
U+2019’RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK is preferred where the character is to represent a punctuation mark, as for contractions: "we’ve", and the code is also referred to as apunctuation apostrophe.[116] The closing single quote and the apostrophe were unified in Unicode 2.1 "to correct problems in the mapping tables fromWindows andMacintosh code pages."[117] This can make searching text more difficult as quotes and apostrophes cannot be distinguished without context.
U+02BCʼMODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE (from Unicode blockSpacing Modifier Letters) 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 aletter apostrophe.[118] The letter apostrophe may be used, for example, in transliterations to represent the Arabicglottal stop (hamza)[118] or the Cyrillic "soft sign", or in some orthographies such ascʼh ofBreton,[119] where this combination is an independenttrigraph.ICANN considers this the proper character forUkrainian apostrophe withinIDNs.[120] This character is rendered identically toU+2019 in the Unicode code charts, and the standard cautions that one should never assume this code is used in any language.[118]
In modern computing practice, Unicode is the standard and default method for character encoding. However, Unicode itself and manylegacy applications have echoes of earlier practices. Furthermore, the limitedcharacter set provided bycomputer keyboards has also required practical and pragmatic adjustments. These issues are detailed below.
The typewriter apostrophe,', was inherited by computer keyboards, and is the only apostrophecharacter available in the (7-bit)ASCIIcharacter encoding, at code value0x27 (39). In ASCII, it may be used to represent any of left singlequotation mark, right single quotation mark, apostrophe, vertical line orprime (punctuation marks), or anacute accent (modifier letters).
Many earlier (pre-1985) computer displays and printers rendered the ASCII apostrophe as a typographic apostrophe, and rendered thebacktick (freestandinggrave accent symbol,`, 0x60, 96) as a matching left single quotation mark. This allowed a more typographic appearance of text:``I can't'' would appear as``I can´t´´ on these systems. This can still be seen in many documents prepared at that time, and is still used in theTeX typesetting system to create typographic quotes.
Support for the typographic apostrophe ( ’ ) was introduced in several 8-bit character encodings, such as the originalApple Macintosh operating system'sMac Roman character set (in 1984), and later in theCP1252 encoding ofMicrosoft Windows. Both sets also used this code point for a closing single quote. There is no such character inISO 8859-1.
TheMicrosoft Windowscode pageCP1252 (sometimes incorrectly calledANSI orISO-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 ade facto convention. For instance, theHTML5 standard specifies that this value is interpreted as this character from CP1252.[122] Some earlier non-Microsoft browsers would display a '?' for this and make web pages composed with Microsoft software somewhat hard to read.
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 most types ofconsumer keyboard. Outside the world of professional typesetting and graphic design, most people use the typewriter apostrophe ('). Because typewriter apostrophes are now oftenautomatically converted to typographic apostrophes byword processing and similar software, the typographic apostrophe routinely appears in documents produced by non-professionals (albeit sometimes incorrectly—see§ Smart Quotes below).
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 thesmart quotes feature; apostrophes and quotation marks that are not automatically altered by computer programs are known asdumb 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 years1929 or2029 (depending on context); or‘twas instead of’twas as thearchaic abbreviation ofit was). Smart quote features also often fail to recognise situations when aprime rather than an apostrophe is needed; for example, incorrectly rendering the latitude 49° 53′ 08″ as 49° 53’ 08”.
InMicrosoft Word it is possible to turn smart quotes off (in some versions, by navigating throughTools,AutoCorrect,AutoFormat as you type, and then unchecking the appropriate option). Alternatively, typing Control-Z (forUndo) 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.
Some programming languages, likePascal, use the ASCII apostrophe to delimitstring literals. In many languages, includingJavaScript,ECMAScript, andPython, 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 anescape character), e.g.foo='He said "Bar!"';. Strings delimited with apostrophes are often calledsingle quoted. Some languages, such asPerl,PHP, 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.
^"Pease" as an old plural of "pea" is indeterminate: Lentils' and pease'[s] use in such dishes was optional. Nouns borrowed from French ending in-eau,-eu,-au, or-ou sometimes have alternative plurals that retain the French-x:beaux orbeaus;bureaux orbureaus;adieux oradieus;fabliaux orfabliaus;choux orchous. Thex in these plurals is often pronounced. If it is, then (in the absence of specific rulings from style guides) the plural possessives are formed with an apostrophe alone:the beaux' [or beaus'] appearance at the ball;the bureaux' [or bureaus'] responses differed. If thex is not pronounced, then in the absence of special rulings the plurals are formed with an apostrophe followed by ans:the beaux's appearance;the bureaux's responses;their adieux's effect was that everyone wept. See alsoNouns ending with silent "s", "x" or "z", below, and attached notes.
"Types I [Jack and Jill's] and II [Jack's and Jill's] are not semantically contrastive. Both allow either a joint or distributive interpretation of the genitive relation."[18]
"Closely linked nouns are considered a single unit in forming the possessive when the thing being 'possessed' is the same for both; only the second element takes the possessive form.
my aunt and uncle's house [...]
When the things possessed are discrete, both nouns take the possessive form.
"Use's after the last of a set of linked nouns where the nouns are acting together [...] but repeat's after each noun in a set where the nouns are acting separately"[21]
"For joint possession, an apostrophe goes with the last element in a series of names. If you put an apostrophe with each element in the series, you signal individual possession."[22]
^This is standard even though the possessive wordhers is usually spelled without an apostrophe; see below in this section.
^Most sources are against continuing theitalics used in such titles to the apostrophe and thes.
^See for exampleNew Hart's Rules. Not one of the other sources listed on this page supports the use ofit's as a possessive form ofit.
^An apparent exception isThe Complete Stylist, Sheridan Baker, 2nd edition 1972, p. 165: "... citizens' rights,the Joneses' possessions, and similarlyThe Beaux' Stratagem." But in fact thex inbeaux, as in other such plurals in English, is often already pronounced (see a note toBasic rule (plural nouns), above);The Beaux Stratagem, the title of a play by George Farquhar (1707), originally lacked the apostrophe (seethe title page of a 1752 edition); and it is complicated by the followings instratagem. Some modern editions add the apostrophe (some with ans also), some omit it; and some make a compound with a hyphen:The Beaux-Stratagem. Farquhar himself used the apostrophe elsewhere in the standard ways, for both omission and possession.
^Gregg Reference Manual, 10th edition, 2003, distinguishes between what it callspossessive anddescriptive forms, and uses this distinction in analyzing the problem. From paragraph 628: "a. Do not mistake a descriptive form ending ins for a possessive form[:] sales effort (sales describes the kind of effort)... b. Some cases can be difficult to distinguish. Is itthe girls basketball team orthe girls' basketball team? Try substituting an irregular plural likewomen. You would not saythe women basketball team; you would saythe women's basketball team. By analogy,the girls' basketball team is correct" [italics given exactly as in original, including following punctuation]. (However in this case the phrase in question is not part of the name: the words are not capitalised!) And then this principle is applied to organizations at paragraph 640, where examples are given, including the non-conformingChildrens Hospital, (in Los Angeles): "The names of many organizations, products, and publications contain words that could be considered either possessive or descriptive terms... c. In all cases follow the organization's preference when known."
^In early French such elisions did occur:m'espée (ma +espée, modern Frenchmon épée: 'my sword'),s'enfance (sa +enfance,son enfance: 'his or her childhood'). But the only modern survivals of this elision with apostrophe arem'amie andm'amour, as archaic and idiomatic alternatives tomon amie andmon amour ('my [female] friend', 'my love'); forms without the apostrophe also used:mamie orma mie,mamour.
^Examples includeNuestras vidas son los ríos/que van a dar en la mar,/qu'es el morir. meaning 'Our lives are the rivers/that flow to give to the sea,/which is death.' (fromCoplas de Don Jorge Manrique por la muerte de su padre, 1477) and¿... qué me ha de aprovechar ver la pintura/d'aquel que con las alas derretidas ...? meaning '... what could it help me to see the painting of that one with the melted wings ...?' (from the 12th sonnet of Garcilazo de la Vega,c. 1500–36).
^It isnot defined inHTML 4[123] despite all the other predefined character entities from XML being defined.
^As a comment character in MS BASIC, the apostrophe is in most cases an abbreviation of the REM statement, which can be appended to the end of almost any line with a colon (:). The cases where the apostrophe is not an abbreviation forREM would be those where the apostrophe is allowed but a REM statement is not. Note that there are also cases of the reverse constraint; for example, in QuickBASIC, a comment at the end of a DATA statement line cannot start with an apostrophe but must use: REM.
^Allen, W. S. (1987).Vox Graeca: The Pronunciation of Classical Greek (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 100, note 13.The English formapostrophe is due to its adoption via French and its current pronunciation as four syllables is due to a confusion with the rhetorical deviceapostrophé
^Castellani, Arrigo (1995). "Sulla formazione del sistema paragrafematico moderno" [On the formation of the modern paragraphamatic system].Studi linguistici italiani (in Italian).21: 3–47:4.
^abcCrystal, David (2003).The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 203.ISBN0521530334.
^Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage. Merriam-Webster. 1994. p. 475.ISBN9780877791324.The only statistical investigation of the genitive case that we are aware of can be found in Fries 1940. Fries found that the possessive genitive was the most common, but that it accounted for only 40 percent of all genitives.
^"Style Guide"(PDF). US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 13 March 2008.
^"§5.25".The Chicago Manual of Style.The possessive of a multiword compound noun is formed by adding the appropriate ending to the last word {parents-in-law's message}.
^CMOS, 7.25: "If plural compounds pose problems, opt forof. ...the professions of both my daughters-in-law."
^The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers (14th ed.). University of Chicago Press. 1993. p. 356.ISBN9780226103891.
^"New Hart's Rules".New Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press. 2012. p. 64.ISBN9780199657223.
^OxfordDictionaries.com: "With personal names that end in-s: add an apostrophe pluss when you would naturally pronounce an extras if you said the word out loud";MLA Style Manual, 2nd edition, 1998, §3.4.7e: "To form the possessive of any singular proper noun, add an apostrophe and ans"BBC Academy: "Grammarians (such as Hart, Fowler, Swan and Lynne Truss) and other authorities, such as the style guides forThe Guardian andThe Economist, agree that the-'s form should follow all singular nouns, regardless of whether they end in an-s or not." (see also"The Economist Style Guide""Archived 3 May 2006 at theWayback Machine;The Elements of Style makes the same rule, with only sketchily presented exceptions.
^Yahoo Style GuideArchived 11 March 2013 at theWayback Machine: "For most singular nouns, add an apostrophe and ans ('s) to the end of the word... For names that end with aneez sound, use an apostrophe alone to form the possessive. Examples:Ramses' wife,Hercules' muscles,According to Jones's review, the computer's graphics card is its Achilles' heel.
^According to this older system, possessives of names ending in "-x" or "-xe" were usually spelled without a final "s" even when an /s/ or /z/ was pronounced at the end (e.g. "Alex' brother" instead of "Alex's brother"), but the possessives of nouns (e.g. "the fox's fur") were usually spelled as today with a final "s".
^The Chicago Manual of Style's text: 7.23An alternative practice. Those uncomfortable with the rules, exceptions, and options outlined above may prefer the system, formerly more common, of simply omitting the possessives on all words ending in s – hence "Dylan Thomas' poetry", "Maria Callas' singing", and "that business' main concern". Though easy to apply, that usage disregards pronunciation and thus seems unnatural to many.
^"DummiesWorld Wide Words".Archived from the original on 3 January 2007. Retrieved13 March 2007..The Chicago Manual of Style, 7.22: "For ... sake expressions traditionally omit thes when the noun ends in ans or ans sound."Oxford Style Manual, 5.2.1: "Use an apostrophe alone after singular nouns ending in ans orz sound and combined withsake: for goodness' sake".
^"Practice varies widely infor conscience' sake andfor goodness' sake, and the use of an apostrophe in them must be regarded as optional"The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, ed. Burchfield, R. W., 3rd edition, 1996, entry for "sake", p. 686,ISBN0198610211.
^In February 2007 Arkansas historian Parker Westbrook successfully petitioned State Representative Steve Harrelson to settle once and for all that the correct possessive should not beArkansas' butArkansas's (Arkansas House to argue over apostrophesArchived 5 January 2009 at theWayback Machine). Arkansas's Apostrophe Act came into law in March 2007 (ABC News [USA], 6 March 2007).
^Jacqueline Letzter (1998)Intellectual Tacking: Questions of Education in the Works of Isabelle de Charrière, Rodopi, p. 123,ISBN9042002905.
^Elizabeth A. McAlister (2002)Rara!: Vodou, Power, and Performance in Haiti and Its Diaspora, University of California Press, p. 196,ISBN0520228227.
^Upham, Warren (1920)."Taylor's Falls".Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance. Vol. 17. p. 110.
^"Camel's Hump State Forest". Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation.Vermont Official State Website. Agency of Natural Resources. 2020.Archived from the original on 13 September 2020. Retrieved24 July 2020.
^"The apostrophe has been dropped from most Australian place-names and street names:Connells Point;Wilsons Promontory;Browns Lane."The Penguin Working Words: an Australian Guide to Modern English Usage, Penguin, 1993, p. 41.
^In reports of very informal speech's may sometimes representdoes: "Where's that come from?"
^SOED givesfo'c's'le as the only shortened form offorecastle, though others are shown inOED. SOED givesbo's'n as one spelling ofbosun, itself a variant ofboatswain.
^Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage. Penguin. 2002. p. 79.ISBN9780877796336.Letters are usually pluralized with's:mind your p's and q's although capital letters are sometimes pluralized withs alone. The use of's to form the plurals of numerals, abbreviations, and symbols is not now as common as pluralization with simples; 1970s, CPUs, &s are more likely to be found than the apostrophied counterparts.
^Garner, Bryan A. (2016).Garner's ModernEnglish Usage. Oxford University Press.ISBN9780190491482.[The apostrophe] is sometimes used to mark the plural of an acronym, initialism, number, or letter—e.g.:CPA's (now more usuallyCPAs), 1990's (now more usually1990s), andp's and q's (still with apostrophes because of the single letters).
^Huddleston, Rodney;Pullum, Geoffrey (2002).The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1586–7.ISBN0521431468.An apostrophe may be used to separate the plural suffix from the base with letters, numbers (notably dates), symbols, abbreviations, and words used metalinguistically ... This practice is less common than it used to be; with dates and abbreviations ending with an upper case letter, the form without the apostrophe is now more usual ...
^New Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. 2014. p. 182.ISBN9780199570027.In plural forms of a single letter an apostrophe can sometimes be clearer ... A's and S's ... minding your p's and q's ...
^The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.). University of Chicago Press. 2010. p. 353.ISBN9780226104201.To aid comprehension, lowercase letters form the plural with an apostrophe and ans. ... the three Rs ... x's and y's
^abGuide to PunctuationArchived 20 February 2015 at theWayback Machine, Larry Trask, University of Sussex: "American usage, however, does put an apostrophe here: (A) This research was carried out in 1970's."
^Brodie, Peter (November 1996). "Never SayNever: Teaching Grammar and Usage".The English Journal.85 (7). National Council of Teachers of English: 78.doi:10.2307/820514.JSTOR820514.
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