How to type Apostrophe
' is the ' key, in the same place on US and UK keyboards. Alt + 39 on the numeric keypad produces it on any Windows layout, which is the way in when the keyboard in front of you has no key for it, and ' writes it in HTML. Its codepoint is U+0027.
Apostrophe
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+0027
- Windows
- Alt + 39
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 39 | Hold Alt and type the number on the numeric keypad. |
| HTML | ' | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+0027 | APOSTROPHE |
Symbols related to Apostrophe
The Unicode code chart points from ' to ‘, ’ and ′, and Unicode's confusables table, the one registrars use against spoofed domains, lists ` as close enough to be mistaken for it.
Other punctuation symbols
' lives in the Basic Latin block (U+0000-U+007F), the original ASCII set: the letters, digits and punctuation printed on a US keyboard. Within Unicode it is classified as Po, a punctuation mark.
What Apostrophe is used for
Unicode publishes a second list of names for ' in CLDR, the keywords its own search data offers rather than the formal name, and they are typewriter apostrophe, quote and single. Those words are what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Apostrophe is not the name they know it by, and the search on the symbol lists matches them as well as the Unicode name.
What ' gets confused with
Unicode's own confusables table, the one used to catch lookalike domain names, groups ' with ` (U+0060, Grave Accent), ´ (U+00B4, Acute Accent), ‘ (U+2018, Left Single Quote), ’ (U+2019, Right Single Quote) and ′ (U+2032, Prime). They are separate characters that render close enough to be mistaken for one another, so a search or a string comparison will separate them where your eye will not. If Apostrophe is not matching where you expect it to, one of these is the usual reason.
What Unicode says about Apostrophe
The standard recognises ' under other names as well: apostrophe-quote (1.0), single quote, APL quote. Those are a formal alias, not a nickname, which is why they turn up in other people's documentation for the same codepoint.
Unicode annotates ' directly. Against U+0027 the code chart carries the note “Neutral (vertical) glyph with mixed usage”. It adds: 2019 is preferred for apostrophe; preferred characters in English for paired quotation marks are 2018 & 2019. That is the standard saying what the character is for, rather than an inference from its name.
The code chart points from ' to modifier letter prime (U+02B9), modifier letter apostrophe (U+02BC), modifier letter vertical line (U+02C8), combining acute accent (U+0301), combining vertical line above (U+030D) and hebrew punctuation geresh (U+05F3). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Apostrophe looks nearly right but not quite.
How Apostrophe behaves in software
' takes one column in a terminal. It carries no direction of its own, so in a line that mixes English with Arabic or Hebrew it takes the direction of the text around it rather than forcing one.
What people ask about Apostrophe
How to type apostrophe?
the ' key, on both US and UK layouts. Alt + 39 on the numeric keypad also produces it.
What is the apostrophe over a letter called?
' is APOSTROPHE, encoded at U+0027. The Unicode code chart annotates it “Neutral (vertical) glyph with mixed usage”, which is the standard's own statement of what it is for. It is distinct from modifier letter prime (U+02B9) and modifier letter apostrophe (U+02BC), which the chart lists beside it precisely because they are confused for one another.
Every way to write Apostrophe
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+0027 |
| Decimal | 39 |
| UTF-8 bytes | 27 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 00 27 |
| HTML entity | ' |
| HTML numeric | ' or ' |
| CSS | \0027 |
| JavaScript | \u0027 |
| Python | \u0027 |
| URL-encoded | %27 |
| SVG | 0027.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ' needs escaping
' is one byte in ASCII, in UTF-8 and in every code page in common use, so it never arrives corrupted. Its problem is the opposite one: it means something to the software reading it. In HTML it can be written ', in a URL it is %27, and inside a CSV field, a shell command or a regular expression it has to be quoted or escaped rather than typed plainly. That is also why ' is the character people substitute when the one they wanted will not type.