Apostrophe

Ask a question about 'Apostrophe' Start a new discussion about 'Apostrophe' Answer questions from other users Full Discussion Forum

English language usage

Possessive apostrophe

General principles for the possessive apostrophe

• If a singular noun ends with an /s/ or a /z/ sound (spelled with -s, -se, -z, -ce, for example), practice varies as to whether to add 's or the apostrophe alone. A widely accepted practice is to follow whichever spoken form is judged better: the boss's shoes, Mrs Jones' hat (or Mrs Jones's hat, if that spoken form is preferred). In many cases, both spoken and written forms differ between writers. (See details below.)

• 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 end in an /s/ or a /z/ sound: mice (plural of mouse, and for compounds like dormouse
  Dormouse
  
  Dormice are rodents of the family Gliridae. . Dormice are mostly found in Europe, although some live in Africa and Asia. They are particularly known for their long periods of hibernation....
  , titmouse
  Titmouse
  
  The tits, chickadees, and titmice comprise Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds which occur in the northern hemisphere and Africa....
  ), dice
  Dice
  
  A die is a small polyhedron object, usually cubic, used for generating Statistical randomnesss or other symbols. This makes dice suitable as gambling devices, especially for craps or sic bo, or for use in non-gambling tabletop games....
   (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.

• 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.

• 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'
  Fox hunting
  
  Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback....
   best dog's death. Some style guides, while allowing that these constructions are possible, advise rephrasing: the preference of the head of marketing's husband. 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 indexes are widely used; the B-52's greatest hits (the fixed forms of McDonald's
  McDonald's
  
  McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of fast food restaurants, serving nearly 58 million customers daily. McDonald's primarily sells hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken products, French fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts....
   and Standard & Poor's
  Standard & Poor's
  
  Standard & Poor's is a division of McGraw-Hill that publishes financial research and analysison stocks and Bond . It is well known for its US-based S&P 500, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 stock market index, the Canadian S&P/TSX Composite, the Italian S&P/MIB and India's S&P CNX Nifty....
   already include possessive apostrophes; the B-52's
  The B-52's
  
  The B-52's originated as a New Wave music rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, United States, in 1976. The band's name comes from a particular Beehive hairdo resembling the nose cone of the B-52 Stratofortress of the same name....
   already has a non-possessive apostrophe before its final s). No noun or noun phrase ever includes two apostrophes at its end. For similar cases involving geographical names, see below.
• By extended application of the principles stated above, the possessives of all phrases whose wording is fixed are formed in the same way: Us and Them
  Us and Them
  
  "Us and Them" is the sixth or seventh track from England progressive rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon. It was written by Richard Wright and Roger Waters and sung by David Gilmour ....
  's inclusion on the album Dark Side of the Moon; You Am I
  You Am I
  
  You Am I is an Australian alternative rock band, fronted by vocalist/guitarist and main songwriter Tim Rogers. They were the first Australian band to have three albums successively debut at #1 on the ARIA Charts, and are renowned for their live music performances....
  's latest CD; The 69'ers
  The 69'ers
  
  The 69'ers were a well known Australian rock/pop/jug/country band formed in Sydney in 1969. They released two albums and a number of singles. As well they toured extensively in Australia and appeared at the Sunbury Pop Festival Rock Festival in 1973 and 1974....
  ' last drummer was Tom Callaghan (only the second apostrophe is possessive); His 'n' Hers
  His 'n' Hers
  
  His 'n' Hers is a 1994 album by Pulp and is commonly cited as the band's breakthrough album. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted it the 70th greatest album of all time....
  ' first track is called "Joyriders" (despite the fact that the single word hers is spelled without an apostrophe, see below in this section; His 'n' Hers's first track is theoretically possible, but unlikely unless an extra sibilant is actually pronounced after Hers). For complications with foreign phrases and titles, see below.

• My sister's friend's investments (the investments belonging to a friend of my sister)
• My sister's friends' investments (the investments belonging to several friends of my sister)
• My sisters' friend's investments (the investments belonging to a friend of several of my sisters)
• My sisters' friends' investments (the investments belonging to several friends of several of my sisters)

• Those things over there are my husband's. (Those things over there belong to my husband.)
• Those things over there are my husbands. (I'm married to those men over there.)

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

• 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
  
  Sorry, no overview for this topic
  , Emory University
  Emory University
  
  Emory University is a private university located in the metropolitan area of the city of Atlanta, Georgia in western unincorporated area DeKalb County, Georgia, Georgia , United States....
  's writing center, and The American Heritage
  The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  
  The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is an American English dictionary of the English language published by Boston, Massachusetts publisher Houghton Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969....
   Book of English Usage. Such sources permit possessive singulars like these: Socrates' later suggestion; James's house, or James' house, depending on which pronunciation is intended.
• Classical, biblical, and similar names ending in a sibilant, especially if they are polysyllabic, do not take an added s in the possessive; among sources giving exceptions of this kind are The Times
  The Times
  
  The Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register.The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of News International....
   and The Elements of Style, which make general stipulations, and Vanderbilt University
  Vanderbilt University
  
  Vanderbilt University is a private university research university in Nashville, Tennessee, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for ship transport and rail transport magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial United States dollar1 million endowment despite having never been to the Southern...
  , which mentions only Moses
  Moses
  
  Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
   and Jesus
  Jesus
  
  Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
  . As a particular case, Jesus'  is very commonly written instead of Jesus's – even by people who would otherwise add 's in, for example, James's or Chris's. Jesus'  is referred to as "an accepted liturgical archaism" in Hart's Rules
  Hart's Rules
  
  Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford is a reference book and style guide published in England by Oxford University Press ....
  .

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

Possessives in geographic names

Possessives in names of organizations

Possessives in business names

Apostrophe showing omission

• It is used in contraction
  Contraction (grammar)
  
  In current English usage, contraction is shortening of a word, syllable, or word group by omission of internal letters.In traditional grammar, contraction can denote the formation of a new word from one word or a group of words, for example, by elision....
  s, 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
  Abbreviation
  
  An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase....
  s, as gov't for government, or '70s for 1970s. In modern usage, apostrophes are generally omitted when letters are removed from the start of a word. For example, it is not common to write 'bus (for omnibus), 'phone (telephone), 'net (Internet). However, if the shortening is unusual, dialectal or archaic, the apostrophe may still be used to mark it (e.g., 'bout for about, 'less for unless, 'twas for it was). Sometimes a misunderstanding of the original form of a word results in an incorrect contraction. A common example: 'til for until, though till is in fact the original form, and until is derived from it.
• The spelling fo'c's'le, contracted from the nautical term forecastle, is notable 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.
• 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 OED, entry for "pince-nez"; pince-nezed is also in citations).
• In certain colloquial contexts an apostrophe's function as possessive or contractive can depend on other punctuation.
• We rehearsed for Friday's opening night. (We rehearsed for the opening night on Friday.)
• We rehearsed, for Friday's opening night. (We rehearsed because Friday is opening night.)
• Eye dialect
  Eye dialect
  
  In English language literature, eye dialect is the literary technique of using non-standard spelling to approximate a pronunciation that is actually no different from the standard pronunciation but has the effect of dialectal, foreign, or uneducated speech....
  s use apostrophes in creating the effect of a non-standard pronunciation.

Use in forming certain plurals

s may leave things ambiguous or inelegant. Some specific cases:

• It is generally acceptable to use apostrophes to show plurals of single lower-case letters, such as be sure to dot your i's and cross your t's. Some style guides would prefer to use a change of font: dot your is and cross your ts. Upper case letters need no apostrophe (I got three As in my exams) except when there is a risk of misreading, such as at the start of a sentence: A's are the highest marks achievable in these exams.
• For groups of years, the apostrophe at the end cannot be regarded as necessary, since there is no possibility of misreading. For this reason, most authorities prefer 1960s to 1960's (although the latter is noted by at least one source as acceptable in American usage), and 90s or '90s to 90's or '90's.
• The apostrophe is sometimes used in forming the plural of numbers (for example, 1000's of years); however, as with groups of years, it is unnecessary: there is no possibility of misreading. Most sources are against this usage.
• The apostrophe is often used in plurals of symbols. Again, since there can be no misreading, this is often regarded as incorrect. That page has too many &s and #s on it.
• Finally, a few sources accept its use in an alternative spelling of the plurals of a very few short words, such as do, ex, yes, no, which become do's, ex's, etc. In each case, dos, exes, yeses (or yesses) and noes would be preferred by most authorities. Nevertheless, many writers are still inclined to use such an apostrophe when the word is thought to look awkward or unusual without one.

Use in non-English names

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).

• Irish surnames often contain an apostrophe after an O, for example O'Doole. This arose from a rendering of the Irish Ó
  Irish name
  
  A formal Irish language name consists of a given name and a surname, as in English. Surnames in Irish are generally patronymic in etymology, although they are no longer literal patronyms, as Icelandic names are....
  .
• Some Scottish
  Scots language
  
  Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
   and Irish
  Irish name
  
  A formal Irish language name consists of a given name and a surname, as in English. Surnames in Irish are generally patronymic in etymology, although they are no longer literal patronyms, as Icelandic names are....
   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
  Family name
  
  A family name or last name is a type of surname and part of a personal name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world....
  would normally appear. (In earlier and meticulous current usage, the symbol is actually ‘ – a kind of reversed apostrophe that is sometimes called a turned comma, which eventually came to be written as the letter c, whose shape is similar.)
• In science fiction
  Science fiction
  
  Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
  , the apostrophe is often used in alien names, sometimes to indicate a glottal stop
  Glottal stop
  
  The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound which is used in many Speech communication languages....
   but also sometimes simply for decoration.

Use in transliterations

In transliterated

Transliteration

Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice....
 foreign words, an apostrophe may be used to separate letters or syllables that otherwise would likely be interpreted incorrectly. For example:

• in the Arabic word mus'haf, a transliteration of , the syllables are as in mus·haf, not mu·shaf);
• in the Japanese name Shin'ichi
  Shin'ichi
  
  is a very common masculine Japanese given name....
  (which can be written in many ways using kanji
  Kanji
  
  are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese language logogram along with hiragana , katakana , Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet....
   but corresponds in all cases to hiragana
  Hiragana
  
  is a Japanese language syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the romanization of Japanese. Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each symbol represents one mora ....
    shi·n·i·chi), the letters n and i are separate mora
  Mora (linguistics)
  
  Mora is a unit of sound used in phonology that determines syllable weight in some languages. Like many technical linguistics terms, the exact definition of mora varies....
  s and the name should be parsed as shin + ichi; although shi and nichi by themselves are existing and common Japanese words, their combination would correspond to hiragana .

Furthermore, an apostrophe may be used to indicate a glottal stop

Glottal stop

The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound which is used in many Speech communication languages....
 in transliterations. For example:

• in the Arabic word Qur'an
  Qur'an
  
  The Qur?an is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur?an to be the book of divine guidance and direction for mankind, and consider the original Arabic text to be the final revelation of God....
  , a common transliteration of (part of) al-qur’an, the apostrophe corresponds to the letter hamza
  Hamza
  
  Hamza 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 orthographical inconsistencies in early Islamic times....
  , one of the letters in the Arabic alphabet
  Arabic alphabet
  
  The Arabic alphabet is the writing system used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic language, Persian language, and Urdu language....
  .

Non-standard English use

Incorrect use of the apostrophe (according to the generally accepted rules) is endemic, and the perceived abuse of the punctuation mark generates heated debate. The British founder of The Apostrophe Protection Society earned a 2001 Ig Nobel prize for "efforts to protect, promote and defend the differences between plural and possessive". A 2004 report by OCR

OCR (examination board)

OCR is an examination board that sets examinations and awards Professional certifications . It is one of England, Wales and Northern Ireland's five main examination boards: the others are Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, Edexcel, the Welsh Joint Education Committee, and the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment....
, a British examination board, 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.

Misused apostrophes are often referred to as "greengrocers' apostrophes", "rogue apostrophes" or "idiot's apostrophes" (a literal translation of the German word Deppenapostroph which criticises the misapplication of apostrophes in Denglisch

Denglisch

Denglisch, often spelled Denglish in English language, is a portmanteau of the German words Deutsch and Englisch. Used in all German-speaking countries, Denglisch describes an influx of English, or pseudo-English vocabulary into the German language through travel and English's widespread usage in advertising and business....
).

Greengrocers' apostrophes

Apostrophes used incorrectly to form plurals are known as greengrocers' apostrophes (or grocers' apostrophes, or sometimes humorously greengrocers apostrophe's). The practice comes from the identical sound of the plural and possessive forms of most English noun

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
s. It is often considered a form of hypercorrection

Hypercorrection

Hypercorrection is a linguistic phenomenon which may take any of the following forms:# an elaborate, Prescription and description based correction of common usage, often introduced in an attempt to avoid vulgarity or informality, that results in wording commonly considered clumsier than the usual, colloquialism;...
 coming from a widespread ignorance of the proper use of the apostrophe or of punctuation in general. Lynne Truss

Lynne Truss

Lynne Truss is an England writer and journalist, best known for her popular book Eats, Shoots & Leaves....
, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a non-fiction book written by Lynne Truss, the former host of the BBC Radio 4's Cutting a Dash programme....
, 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.

It is believed that the term was coined in the middle of the 20th century by a teacher of languages working in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool [] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a History of borough status in England and Wales in 1207 and was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1880....
, at a time when such mistakes were common in the handwritten signs and advertisements of greengrocer

Greengrocer

A greengrocer is a retail trader in fruit and vegetables; that is, in green groceries. Greengrocer is primarily a United Kingdom and Australian term, and greengrocers' shops were once common in suburbs, towns and villages....
s (e.g., Apple's 1/-

Shilling

The shilling is a unit of currency used in current and former Commonwealth of Nations countries, and continued to be used in countries that left the commonwealth, such as Republic of Ireland and Tanzania....
 a pound, Orange's 1/6d

Penny

A penny is a coin or a unit of currency used in several English-speaking countries....
 a pound). Some have argued that its use in mass communication by employees of well-known companies has led to the less grammatically able assuming it to be correct and adopting the habit themselves.

The same error is sometimes made by non-native speakers of English and this hyperforeignism

Hypercorrection

Hypercorrection is a linguistic phenomenon which may take any of the following forms:# an elaborate, Prescription and description based correction of common usage, often introduced in an attempt to avoid vulgarity or informality, that results in wording commonly considered clumsier than the usual, colloquialism;...
 has been formalised in some pseudo-anglicism

Anglicism

An anglicism, as most often defined, is a word borrowed from English language into another language. Speakers of the recipient language usually consider an anglicism to be substandard or undesirable ....
s. For example, the French word pin's (from English pin) is used (with the apostrophe in both singular and plural) for collectable lapel pin

Lapel pin

A lapel pin is a small brooch often worn on the Jacket lapel of a dress jacket. Lapel pins can be purely ornamental or can indicate the wearer's affiliation with an organization or cause; for example, American Flag lapel pins became very popular in the United States, especially among politicians, following the terrorist attacks of Septemb...
s. Similarly, there is an Andorra

Andorra

Andorra , officially the Principality of Andorra , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, is a small landlocked country in western Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France....
n football club called FC Rànger's

FC Rànger's

FC R?nger's is an Andorran football team which plays in the Andorran First Division....
 (after such British clubs as Rangers F.C.

Rangers F.C.

Rangers Football Club are an association football team based in Glasgow, Scotland who currently play in the Scottish Premier League. They have won 51 domestic league titles, more than any other team....
) and a Japanese pop punk

Pop punk

Pop punk is a fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. It is typically referred to as a strand of alternative rock that combines power-pop melodies and chord changes with speedy punk tempos and loud guitars....
 band called the Titan Go King's.

The widespread use of apostrophes before the s of plural nouns has led some to believe that an apostrophe is also needed before the s of the third-person present tense of a verb. Thus, he take's, it begin's, etc...

While the greengrocers' apostrophe is more likely to be found in small retail businesses, the UK's largest supermarket chain, Tesco

Tesco

Tesco Public limited company is a British-based international grocery and general merchandising retail chain. It is the largest British retailer by both global sales and domestic market share with profits exceeding ?2 billion....
, has a habit of omitting the mark where it should be included. Its in-store signage advertises (among other items) mens magazines, girls toys, kids books and womens shoes. The author Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson

William McGuire "Bill" Bryson, Order of the British Empire, is a best-selling United States author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and on science subjects....
 lambastes Tesco for this reason in his book Troublesome Words

Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words

Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words is a book by Bill Bryson, first released 1984, that catalogues some of the English language's most commonly misused words and phrases in order to demonstrate correct usage....
, stating that "the mistake is inexcusable and those who make it are linguistic Neanderthals".

Advocates of greater or lesser use

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw, was an Irish people playwright.Although Shaw's first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, his talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays....
, a proponent of English spelling reform

Spelling reform

Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate, often officially sanctioned or mandated, change to spelling takes place. Proposals for such reform are also common....
 on phonetic principles, argued that the apostrophe was mostly redundant. He did not use it for spelling cant or hes when writing Pygmalion

Pygmalion (play)

Pygmalion is a Play by George Bernard Shaw loosely inspired by Pygmalion . It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined society lady by teaching her how to speak with an upper class...
. He did however allow I'm and it's. Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll , was an England author, mathematics, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer....
 made greater use of apostrophes, and frequently used sha'n't. Neither author's use has become widespread.

Other misuses

The British pop group Hear'Say famously made unconventional use of an apostrophe in its name. Truss comments that "the naming of Hear'Say in 2001 was [...] a significant milestone on the road to punctuation anarchy". Dexys Midnight Runners

Dexys Midnight Runners

Dexys Midnight Runners are a United Kingdom pop music group with soul music influences, who achieved their major success in the early to mid 1980s....
, on the other hand, omit the apostrophe.

An apostrophe wrongly thought to be misused in popular culture occurs in the name of Liverpudlian rock band The La's

The La's

The La's are an England rock music band from Liverpool consisting of frontman Lee Mavers and John Power , plus a rotating cast of guitarists and drummers....
. This apostrophe is often thought to be a mistake; but in fact it marks omission of the letter d. The name comes from the Scouse

Scouse

File:Mersey.svgScouse is the accent and dialect of English language found in the city of Liverpool, and in some adjoining urban areas of Merseyside, mainly The Wirral, often known as woolyback or posh scouse, due to several differences in speech patterns and pronunciation, but also in the new town areas of Runcorn and Skelmersdale....
 slang

Slang

Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language....
 for "The Lads".

Other languages

As a mark of elision

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

Elision

Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphony effect....
 of one or more sounds, as in English.

• In Afrikaans
  Afrikaans
  
  Afrikaans is an Indo-European language, derived from Dutch language and thus classified as Low Franconian languages West Germanic languages. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, Taiwa...
   the apostrophe is used to show that letters have been omitted from words. The most common use is in the indefinite article 'n which is a contraction of een meaning "one" (the number). As the initial e is omitted and cannot be capitalised, if a sentence begins with 'n the second word in the sentence is capitalised. For example: 'n Pen is in my hand., "A pen is in my hand".
• In Danish
  Danish language
  
  Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the status of minority language....
  , apostrophes are sometimes seen on commercial
  Advertising
  
  Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
   materials. One might commonly see Ta' mig med ("Take me with [you]") next to a stand with advertisement leaflets; that would be written Tag mig med in standard orthography. As in German, the apostrophe must not be used to indicate the possessive, except when there is already an s present in the base form, as in Lukas' bog.
• In the Dutch language
  Dutch language
  
  Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
  , the apostrophe is again used to indicate omitted characters. For example, the indefinite article een can be shortened to 'n, and the definite article het shortened to 't. When this happens with the first word of a sentence, only the second word of the sentence is capitalised. In general, this way of using the apostrophe is considered non-standard, except in 's morgens, 's middags, 's avonds, 's nachts (for des morgens, des middags, des avonds, des nachts: "at morning, at afternoon, at evening, at night"). In addition, the apostrophe is used for plurals where the singulars end with certain vowel
  Vowel
  
  In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis....
  s, e.g. foto's, taxi's; and for the genitive of proper names ending with these vowels, e.g. Anna's, Otto's. These are in fact elided vowels; use of the apostrophe prevents spellings like fotoos and Annaas.
• In French
  French language
  
  French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
   phrases such as coup d'état
  Coup d'état
  
  A coup d??tat , often simply called a coup, is the sudden unconstitutional overthrow of a government by a part of the state establishment – usually the military – to replace the branch of the stricken government, either with another civil government or with a military government....
  and maître d'hôtel (the latter often shortened to maître d, when used by English speakers), the vowel in the preposition de ("of") is elided because the word which follows it also starts with a vowel (or a mute h
  H
  
  H is the eighth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in both British English and American English is aitch , though it is also pronounced haitch in some dialects ....
  ). Similarly, French has l'église instead of la église ("the church"), qu'il instead of que il ("that he"), and so on. Feminine singular possessive adjectives do not undergo elision, but change to the masculine form instead: ma preceding église becomes mon église ("my church"). Analogous constructions are also common in Italian
  Italian language
  
  Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
   and Catalan
  Catalan language
  
  Catalan is a Romance languages, the national language and official language of Andorra, and a official language in the Autonomous Communities of Spain of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community and in the city of Alghero in the Italy List of islands in the Mediterranean of Sardinia....
  . French and Italian surnames sometimes contain apostrophes of elision, e.g. d'Alembert, D'Angelo.
• German
  German language
  
  German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
   usage is very similar: an apostrophe is used almost exclusively to indicate omitted letters. It must not be used for plurals or most of the possessive forms (Max' Vater being one of very few exceptions); although both usages are widespread, they are deemed incorrect. The German equivalent of greengrocers' apostrophes would be the derogatory Deppenapostroph ("idiots' apostrophe"). (See the article Apostrophitis in German Wikipedia.)
• The Fundamento de Esperanto
  Fundamento de Esperanto
  
  The Fundamento de Esperanto is a book by L. L. Zamenhof, published in the spring of 1905. On August 9, 1905 it was made the official source for the language by the fourth article of the Declaration of Boulogne at the first World Congress of Esperanto in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France....
   limits the elision mark to the definite article l' (from la) and singular nominative nouns (kor' from koro, "heart"). This is mostly confined to poetry. Non-standard dank' al (from danke al, "thanks to") and del' (from de la, "of the") are nonetheless frequent. In-word elision is usually marked with a hyphen
  Hyphen
  
  A hyphen is a punctuation mark. It is used both to join words and also to separate syllables of a single word. It is often confused with the dash , which are longer and have different uses, and with the minus sign which is also longer....
  , as in D-ro (from doktoro, "Dr
  DR
  
  DR may refer to:* Digital radiography* Dynamic Range* Digital recorder, a data-storing device* Design Rational, the rational explanation for a design decision in design research...
  "). Some early guides used and advocated the use of apostrophes between word parts, to aid recognition of such compound words as gitar'ist'o, "guitarist".
• Initialisms in Hebrew are denoted with a geresh
  Geresh
  
  Geresh is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.1. An apostrophe-like sign placed after a letter. It is used:Usage...
  , often typed as an apostrophe. A double geresh, known by the plural form gershayim
  Gershayim
  
  Gershayim is a punctuation mark used in the Hebrew language. It has two distinct meanings.# The original meaning of "Gershayim" is to denote a note of cantillation in the reading of the Torah, taking the form of a doubled curved stroke printed above the accented letter....
  , is used to denote acronyms; it is inserted before (i.e., to the right of) the last letter of the acronym.
• In Luganda, when a word ending with a vowel
  Vowel
  
  In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis....
   is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, the final vowel of the first word is elided
  Elision
  
  Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphony effect....
   and the initial vowel of the second word lengthened
  Vowel length
  
  In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one such as in Australian English....
   in compensation. When the first word is a monosyllable this elision is represented in the orthography with an apostrophe: in taata w'abaana "the father of the children", wa ("of") becomes w'; in y'ani? ("who is it?"), ye ("who") becomes y'. But the final vowel of a polysyllable is always spelt out in writing, even if it is elided in speech: omusajja oyo ("this man"), not *omusajj'oyo, because omusajja ("man") is a polysyllable.

To separate morphemes

• In Danish
  Danish language
  
  Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the status of minority language....
   and Norwegian
  Norwegian language
  
  Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
  , an apostrophe is sometimes used to join the enclitic definite article
  Definite Article
  
  Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on video and CD. The video/DVD and CD performances were both recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England....
   to words of foreign origin, or to other words which would otherwise look awkward. For example, one would write IP'en to mean "the IP address
  IP address
  
  An Internet Protocol address is a numerical identification that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol for communication between its nodes....
  ". There is some variation in what is considered "awkward enough" to warrant an apostrophe; for instance, long-established words such as firma ("company") or niveau ("level") might be written firma'et and niveau'et, but will generally be seen without an apostrophe.
• In Finnish
  Finnish language
  
  Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by Finnish people outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden....
  , 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'hun ("to Bordeaux"). Author and controversialist Pentti Saarikoski
  Pentti Saarikoski
  
  Pentti Saarikoski was one of the most important poets in the literary scene of Finland during the 60's and 70's. His body of work comprises poetry and translations, among them such classics as Homer's Odyssey and James Joyce's Ulysses ....
   strenuously railed against this practice. For Finnish as well as Swedish
  Swedish language
  
  Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....
  , there is a closely related use of the colon.
• In Estonian
  Estonian language
  
  Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various ?migr? communities....
  , apostrophes can be used in the declension of some foreign names to separate the stem from any declension
  Declension
  
  In linguistics, declension is the occurrence of inflection in nouns, pronouns and adjectives, indicating such features as grammatical number , grammatical case , and grammatical gender....
   endings; e.g., Monet' (genitive case
  Genitive case
  
  In grammar, the genitive case or possessive case is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take argument in the genitive case; and it may have adverbial uses ....
  ) or Monet'sse (illative case
  Illative case
  
  Illative case in the Finno-Ugric languagesIllative is, in the Finnish language, Estonian language and the Hungarian language, the third of the locative case declension with the basic meaning of "into "....
  ) of Monet (name of the famous painter).
• In Polish
  Polish language
  
  Polish , an official language of Poland, has the largest number of speakers of any West Slavic languages. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner through most of Poland, and it has a regular orthography....
  , the apostrophe is used exclusively for marking inflections of words and word-like elements (such as acronyms) whose spelling conflicts with the normal rules of inflection. This mainly affects foreign words and names. For instance, one would write Kampania Ala Gore'a for "Al Gore
  Al Gore
  
  Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. is an United States environmentalism activist who served as the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President of the United States Bill Clinton....
  's campaign". In this example, Ala is spelt without an apostrophe, since its spelling and pronunciation fit into normal Polish rules; but Gore'a 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 Kampania Al'a Gore'a, for example. The effect is akin to the greengrocers' apostrophe (see above).
• In Turkish
  Turkish language
  
  Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....
  , proper nouns
  Noun
  
  In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
   are capitalized and an apostrophe is inserted between the noun and any following suffix
  Suffix
  
  In grammar, 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 or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the grammatical conjugation of verbs....
  , e.g. Istanbul'da ("in Istanbul"), contrasting with okulda ("in school").

As a mark of palatalization or non-palatalization

• In the Belarusian
  Belarusian language
  
  The Belarusian language, or Belorussian is the language of the Belarusians and is spoken in Belarus and abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland....
   and Ukranian
  Ukrainian language
  
  Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic languages of the Slavic languages. It is the official language of Ukraine. In some areas of Russia there are dialects, Balachka or Surzhyk, which are the Ukrainianized versions of the Russian language....
   languages, the apostrophe is used between a consonant and a following "soft" (iotified
  Iotation
  
  Iotation is a form of palatalization which occurs in Slavic languages. In most of them, iotated consonants are called soft consonants and the process of iotation is called softening....
  ) vowel (?, ?, ?, ?; Uk. ?, ?, ?, ?) to indicate that no palatalization of the preceding consonant takes place, and the vowel is pronounced in the same way as at the beginning of the word.
• In Russian and some derived alphabets the same function is served by the hard sign (?, formerly called yer). But the apostrophe saw some use as a substitute after 1918, when Soviet authorities enforced an orthographic reform by confiscating type bearing that "letter parasite" from stubborn printing houses in Petrograd.
• In some Latin transliterations of certain variants of the Cyrillic alphabet
  Cyrillic alphabet
  
  The Cyrillic alphabet is a family of alphabets, subsets of which are used by five Slavic languages national languages as well as non-Slavic . It is also used by many other languages of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Siberia and other languages in the past....
   (for Belarusian
  Belarusian language
  
  The Belarusian language, or Belorussian is the language of the Belarusians and is spoken in Belarus and abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland....
  , Russian
  Russian language
  
  Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
  , and Ukrainian language
  Ukrainian language
  
  Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic languages of the Slavic languages. It is the official language of Ukraine. In some areas of Russia there are dialects, Balachka or Surzhyk, which are the Ukrainianized versions of the Russian language....
  ), the apostrophe is used to replace the soft sign
  Soft sign
  
  The soft sign is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. In Old Church Slavonic, it represented a short front vowel but in modern Slavic Cyrillic writing systems , it does not represent an individual sound, rather it indicates softening of the preceding consonant or just has a traditional orthographic usage with no phonetic meaning ....
   (?, indicating palatalization of the preceding consonant), e.g., ???? is transliterated Rus'
  Kievan Rus'
  
  Kievan Rus' , also written as Kyivan Rus', was a medieval state which existed from approximately 880 to the middle of the 12th century. Founded by the Scandinavian traders called "Rus' " and centered in the city of Kiev , Rus' polity is considered an early predecessor of three modern East Slavs nations: Belarusians, Russians, and Ukrai...
   according to the BGN/PCGN system. Confusingly, some of these transliteration schemes use a double apostrophe ( " ) to represent the apostrophe in Ukrainian and Belarusian text, e.g. Ukrainian ????'?????? ("Slavic") is transliterated as slov"yans'ke.
• Some Karelian
  Karelian language
  
  Karelian is a language closely related to Finnish language, with which it is not necessarily mutually intelligible. Karelian is spoken mainly in Republic of Karelia, Russia....
   orthographies use an apostrophe to indicate palatalization, e.g. n'evvuo ("to give advice"), d'uuri ("just (like)"), el'vüttiä ("to revive").

As a glottal stop

• Guarani
  Guaraní language
  
  Guaran? is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tup?-Guaran? subfamily of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay , where it is spoken by 94% of the population....
  , where it is called puso , as in the words ñe'?, ka'a, a' ?.
• Hawaiian
  Hawaiian language
  
  The Hawaiian language is an Austronesian languages that takes its name from Hawaii , the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed....
  , the
  Okina
  
  The okina, also called by several other names , is a unicameral consonant letter used within the Latin script to mark the phonetic glottal stop, as it is used in many Polynesian languages....
   , an inverted apostrophe, is often rendered as ('). It is considered a letter of the alphabet.
• In the Tongan
  Tongan
  
  Tongan can refer to:*Tongans, a person from Tonga*Tongan language*Tong'an District, district in Xiamen, Fujian, China...
   language, the apostrophe is called a fakau?a and is the last letter of the alphabet. It is used to represent the glottal stop. Like the ?okina, it is inverted.
• Various other Austronesian languages
  Austronesian languages
  
  The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia....
  , such as Samoan
  Samoan language
  
  The Samoan or Samoan language is the traditional language of Samoa and American Samoa and is an official language—alongside English language—in both jurisdictions....
  , Tahitian
  Tahitian language
  
  Tahitian, a Tahitic languages, is one of the two official languages of French Polynesia . It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to Rarotongan language, Maori language, and Hawaiian language....
  , and Chamorro
  Chamorro language
  
  It is an agglutinative language, grammatically allowing root words to be modified by an unlimited number of affixes. For example, masanganen?aihon "talked awhile ", passivizing prefix ma-, root verb sangan, directional suffix i "to" with excrescent consonant n, and suffix ?aihon "a short amount of time"....
  .
• Tetum
  Tetum language
  
  Tetum is an Austronesian languages, a national language and one of the two official languages of East Timor. Some of its dialects have been greatly influenced by Portuguese language, the other official language of the country, especially in their vocabulary, but also in aspects of their grammar....
  , one of the official languages of East Timor
  East Timor
  
  East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro Island and Jaco , and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor....
  .
• The Brazil
  Brazil
  
  Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
  ian native Tupi language.
• Mayan.
• The constructed Klingon language
  Klingon language
  
  The Klingon language is the constructed language spoken by Klingons in the fictional Star Trek universe. Deliberately designed by Marc Okrand to be "alien", it contains many peculiarities, such as Object Verb Subject word order....
  .

Miscellaneous uses in other languages

• In the Czech
  Czech language
  
  Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czech people worldwide....
   and Slovak
  Slovak language
  
  The Slovak language , sometimes incorrectly called ?Slovakian?, is an Indo-European languages that belongs to the West Slavic languages .The Czech and Slovak languages are Mutual intelligibility which means that even after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia Czech may be used in all official proceedings and documents in Slovakia, and vice ver...
   languages, the caron
  Caron
  
  A caron or h?cek , also known as a wedge, inverted circumflex, inverted hat, is a diacritic placed over certain letters to indicate present or historical palatalization, iotation, or postalveolar consonant pronunciation in the orthography of some Baltic languages, Slavic languages, Finno-Lappic languages, and other la...
   over lowercase t, d, l, and uppercase L consonants resembles an apostrophe: d, t, l, L. This is especially so in certain common typographic renderings. But it is incorrect to use an apostrophe instead of the caron. In Slovak, there is also l with an acute accent: l, L. In both languages the apostrophe is only ever properly used to indicate elision
  Elision
  
  Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphony effect....
   in certain words (tys', as an abbreviated form of ty si in Slovak, or pad' for padl in Czech); however, these elisions are restricted to poetry. And the apostrophe is also used before a two-digit year number (to indicate the omission of the first two digits): '87.
• In Finnish
  Finnish language
  
  Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by Finnish people outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden....
  , one of the consonant gradation
  Consonant gradation
  
  Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation, in which consonants alternation between various "grades". It is found in some Finno-Lappic languages such as Finnish language, Estonian language and Sami language, as well as in the Samoyed languages language Nganasan language....
   patterns is the change of a k into a hiatus
  Hiatus (linguistics)
  
  Hiatus in linguistics is the separate pronunciation of two adjacent vowels, sometimes with an intervening glottal stop. In poetic metre , hiatus can also refer to the failure of two vowels straddling a word boundary to coalesce, for example by elision of the first vowel....
  , e.g. keko ? keon ("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. ruoko ? ruo'on, vaaka ? vaa'an. (This is in contrast to compound words, where the equivalent problem is solved with a hyphen
  Hyphen
  
  A hyphen is a punctuation mark. It is used both to join words and also to separate syllables of a single word. It is often confused with the dash , which are longer and have different uses, and with the minus sign which is also longer....
  , e.g. maa-ala, "land area".) Similarly, the apostrophe is used to mark the hiatus
  Hiatus (linguistics)
  
  Hiatus in linguistics is the separate pronunciation of two adjacent vowels, sometimes with an intervening glottal stop. In poetic metre , hiatus can also refer to the failure of two vowels straddling a word boundary to coalesce, for example by elision of the first vowel....
   (contraction) that occurs in poetry, e.g. miss' on for missä on ("where is").
• In the Breton language
  Breton language
  
  The Breton language is a Celtic languages spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany in France....
  , the combination c'h is used for the consonant (like ch in English Loch Ness), while ch is used for the consonant (as in French chat or English she).
• In Italian
  Italian language
  
  Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
  , an apostrophe is sometimes used as a substitute for a grave accent
  Grave accent
  
  The grave accent is a diacritical mark used in written Catalan language, French language, Greek language until 1982 , Italian language, Norwegian language, Occitan language, Portuguese language, Scottish Gaelic language, Vietnamese language, Welsh language, Dutch language, and other languages....
   after a final vowel: in capitals, or when the proper form of the letter is unavailable. So Niccolò might be rendered as Niccolo', or NICCOLO'. This only applies to machine or computer writing, in the absence of a suitable keyboard.
• In Swahili
  Swahili language
  
  Swahili is the first language of the Swahili people , who inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands....
  , an apostrophe after ng shows that there is no sound of after the sound; that is, that the ng is pronounced as in English singer, not as in English finger.
• In Luganda, ng' (pronounced ) is used in place of ? on keyboards where this character is not available. The apostrophe distinguishes it from the letter combination ng (pronounced ), which has separate use in the language. Compare this with the Swahili usage above.
• In Jèrriais
  Jèrriais
  
  J?rriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. It has been in decline over the past century as English language has increasingly become the language of education, commerce and administration....
  , one of the uses of the apostrophe is to mark gemination
  Gemination
  
  In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant.Consonant length is distinctive in some languages, for instance Arabic language, Estonian language, Finnish language, Russian language, Hebrew language, Hungarian language, Italian language, Japanese language, L...
  , or consonant length. For example, t't represents , s's , n'n , th'th , and ch'ch (contrasted with , , , , and ).
• In the pinyin
  Pinyin
  
  Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu is the Chinese Language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"....
   (hànyu pinyin) system of romanization
  Romanization
  
  In linguistics, romanization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Latin alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system ....
   for Standard Mandarin
  Standard Mandarin
  
  Standard Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, is the official modern Spoken Chinese used in People's Republic of China and Republic of China, and is one of the four official languages of Languages of Singapore....
   (the main Chinese language
  Chinese language
  
  Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....
  , or Putonghua), 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 Xi'an
  Xi'an
  
  Xi'an , is the Capital of the Shaanxi Provinces of China in the People's Republic of China and a sub-provincial city. As one of the oldest cities in Chinese history, Xi'an is one of the Historical capitals of China because it has been the capital of some of the most important Dynasties in Chinese history in Chinese history, including the Zh...
   includes an apostrophe to distinguish it from a single-syllable word xian. More strictly, however, it is only correct to place an apostrophe before every a, e, or o that starts a new syllable after the first, and is not preceded by a hyphen or a dash. Examples: Tian'anmén, Ya'an
  Ya'an
  
  Ya'an is a prefecture-level city in the western part of Sichuan province of the People's Republic of China....
  ; but simply Jinán
  Jinan
  
  Jinan is a sub-provincial city and the capital of Shandong Provinces of China, People's Republic of China. The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the history of the region from the earliest beginnings of civilization and has evolved into an important administrative, economic, and transportation hub....
  , in which the syllables are ji and nan, since the absence of an apostrophe shows that the syllables are not jin and an (contrast Jin'an
  Jin'an
  
  Jin'an may refer to:*Jin'an District, Lu'an, in Anhui, China*Jin'an District, Fuzhou, in Fuzhou, Fujian, China...
  ). This is a kind of morpheme-separation marking (see above).
• In the largely superseded Wade–Giles
  Wade-Giles
  
  Wade-Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization system for the Mandarin Chinese language used in Beijing. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Francis Wade in the mid-19th century, and reached settled form with Herbert Giles' Chinese language-English language dictionary of 1892....
   romanization for Standard Mandarin, an apostrophe marks aspiration
  Aspiration (phonetics)
  
  In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of Earth's atmosphere that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents....
   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.
• In some systems of romanization for the Japanese language
  Japanese language
  
  IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
  , the apostrophe is used between mora
  Mora (linguistics)
  
  Mora is a unit of sound used in phonology that determines syllable weight in some languages. Like many technical linguistics terms, the exact definition of mora varies....
  s in ambiguous situations, to differentiate between, for example, ''na'' and ''n'' + ''a''. (This is similar to the practice in Pinyin mentioned above.)
• In Hebrew, the apostrophe is adjacent to letters to show sounds that are not represented in the Hebrew alphabet. Sounds such as ''j'', ''th'', and ''ch'' are indicated using ?, ?, and ? with an apostrophe (also called a geresh
  Geresh
  
  Geresh is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.1. An apostrophe-like sign placed after a letter. It is used:Usage...
  , or informally "chupchik"). For example, the name ''Jarred'' can be spelled ?'?? in Hebrew (with the initial '? representing the sound of the ''j'').
• In the new Uzbek Latin alphabet
  Uzbek language
  
  Uzbek is a Turkic languages and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia....
   adopted in 2000, the apostrophe serves as a diacritical mark
  Diacritic
  
  A diacritic is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. The term derives from the Greek language d?a???t???? ....
   to distinguish different phonemes written with the same letter: it differentiates ''o''' (corresponding to Cyrillic ''?
  Short U
  
  Short U is a letter of the Belarusian language Cyrillic alphabet. The letter is called non-syllabic u or short u in Belarusian, because while resembling the vowel ? it does not form syllables....
  '') from ''o'', and ''g''' (Cyrillic ''?'') from ''g''. This avoids the use of special characters, allowing Uzbek to be typed with ease in ordinary ASCII
  ASCII
  
  American Standard Code for Information Interchange , is a coding standard that can be used for interchanging information, if the information is expressed mainly by the written form of English words....
   on any Latin keyboard. In addition, a postvocalic apostrophe in Uzbek represents the glottal stop phoneme derived from Arabic ''hamza
  Hamza
  
  Hamza 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 orthographical inconsistencies in early Islamic times....
  h'' or ''‘ayn
  Ayin
  
  ' or ' is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic language, Hebrew language and Arabic alphabet ....
  '', replacing Cyrillic ''?
  Yer
  
  eading=Cyrillic letter Yer|Image=...
  ''.
• In English Yorkshire dialect, 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 ''inter barn'' and ''onter step''. A more accurate rendition might be ''in't barn'' and ''on't step'', though even this does not truly convey correct Yorkshire pronunciation.
• Galician restaurants
  Galician cuisine
  
  Galician cuisine refers to the typical dishes and ingredients found in the cuisine of the Galicia region of Spain. These include shellfish, empanadas, polbo ? feira , the cheese tetilla cheese, the ribeiro and albari?o wines and orujo liquor....
   in Madrid in Páginas Amarillas
  Yellow Pages
  
  The term Yellow Pages refers to a telephone directory of businesses, categorized according to the product or service provided. As the name suggests, such directories are usually printed on yellow paper, as opposed to Telephone directory for non-commercial listings....
   sometimes use ''O''' in their names instead of the standard article ''O'' ("The").

Typographic form

Computing

Smart Quotes

Typewriter apostrophe and ASCII encoding

Typographic apostrophe and 8-bit encodings

Unicode

• ( ' ) Vertical ''typewriter apostrophe'' (Unicode name ''apostrophe'' or ''apostrophe-quote''), U+0027, inherited from ASCII
  ASCII
  
  American Standard Code for Information Interchange , is a coding standard that can be used for interchanging information, if the information is expressed mainly by the written form of English words....
  .
• (  ) ''Punctuation apostrophe'' (or ''right single quotation mark''; ''single comma quotation mark''), U+2019. Serves as both an apostrophe and closing single quotation mark. This is the preferred character to use for apostrophe according to the Unicode standard.
• (  ) ''Letter apostrophe'' (or ''modifier letter apostrophe''), U+02BC. This is preferred when the apostrophe is not considered punctuation which separates letters, but a letter in its own right. Examples occur in the Cyrillic Azerbaijani alphabet
  Azerbaijani alphabet
  
  In Republic of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani alphabet may refer to either of two alphabets used to write the Azerbaijani language: one Cyrillic-based alphabet and one Latin-based alphabet....
  , or in some transliteration
  Transliteration
  
  Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice....
  s such as the transliterated Arabic glottal stop
  Glottal stop
  
  The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound which is used in many Speech communication languages....
  , ''hamza'', or transliterated Cyrillic soft sign
  Soft sign
  
  The soft sign is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. In Old Church Slavonic, it represented a short front vowel but in modern Slavic Cyrillic writing systems , it does not represent an individual sound, rather it indicates softening of the preceding consonant or just has a traditional orthographic usage with no phonetic meaning ....
  . (The Hawaiian glottal stop, the okina
  Okina
  
  The okina, also called by several other names , is a unicameral consonant letter used within the Latin script to mark the phonetic glottal stop, as it is used in many Polynesian languages....
  , has its own Unicode character at U+02BB.) As the letter apostrophe is seldom used in practice, the Unicode standard cautions that one should never assume text is coded thus. The letter apostrophe is rendered identically to the punctuation apostrophe in the Unicode code charts.

• (  ) ''Double letter apostrophe'' (Unicode name ''modifier letter double apostrophe''), U+02EE.

• (  ) ''Armenian apostrophe'' (Unicode name ''Armenian apostrophe''), U+055A.

See also

• Caron
  Caron
  
  A caron or h?cek , also known as a wedge, inverted circumflex, inverted hat, is a diacritic placed over certain letters to indicate present or historical palatalization, iotation, or postalveolar consonant pronunciation in the orthography of some Baltic languages, Slavic languages, Finno-Lappic languages, and other la...
  
• Contraction (grammar)
  Contraction (grammar)
  
  In current English usage, contraction is shortening of a word, syllable, or word group by omission of internal letters.In traditional grammar, contraction can denote the formation of a new word from one word or a group of words, for example, by elision....
  
• Elision
  Elision
  
  Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphony effect....
  
• Genitive case
  Genitive case
  
  In grammar, the genitive case or possessive case is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take argument in the genitive case; and it may have adverbial uses ....
  
• Possessive case
  Possessive case
  
  The possessive case of a language is a grammatical case used to indicate a relationship of Possession . It is not the same as the genitive case, which can express a wider range of relationships, though the two have similar meanings in many languages....
  

Bibliography

• Gibaldi, Joseph. ''MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers''. New York: Modern Language Association, 2003.
• Truss, Lynne
  Lynne Truss
  
  Lynne Truss is an England writer and journalist, best known for her popular book Eats, Shoots & Leaves....
  . ''Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
  Eats, Shoots & Leaves
  
  Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a non-fiction book written by Lynne Truss, the former host of the BBC Radio 4's Cutting a Dash programme....
  '', 2003. Gotham Books, Toronto (North American edition). ISBN 1-59240-087-6

External links

• Oxford University Press article on apostrophe use in plurals
• Problems representing apostrophes on computers.
• Examples of apostrophe abuse and neglect