How to type Right Single Quote
To type Right Single Quote (’), press Alt + 0146 on Windows, holding Alt while typing the digits on the numeric keypad, or press Option + Shift + ] on Mac, or write ’ in HTML. On any system you can copy it from this page, or enter its codepoint U+2019 directly: Ctrl+Shift+U then 2019 on Linux, or 2019 then Alt+X in Microsoft Word.
Right Single Quotation Mark
- Copy it
- Unicode
- U+2019
- Windows
- Alt + 0146
| Where | Shortcut | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Alt + 0146 | Hold Alt and type the number on the numeric keypad. |
| Mac | Option + Shift + ] | Press the keys together. |
| HTML | ’ | Paste this into HTML source. |
| Unicode | U+2019 | RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK |
Symbols related to Right Single Quote
The Unicode code chart points from ’ to ', and Unicode's confusables table, the one registrars use against spoofed domains, lists `, ‘ and ′ as close enough to be mistaken for it, and the rest are filed under smart and quote in CLDR, the keyword list Unicode publishes alongside the names.
Other punctuation symbols
’ lives in the General Punctuation block (U+2000-U+206F), dashes, quotation marks, spaces and reference marks used across languages. Within Unicode it is classified as Pf, a closing quotation mark. Direction-aware quotes distinguish open from close.
What Right Single Quote is used for
’ belongs in prose rather than in an equation. LaTeX writes it ', a text command, and there is no maths command for it at all: it is a sign that gets written down, not an operator that acts on anything. Putting it inside $...$ is how it comes out looking wrong.
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 right apostrophe and smart. Those words are what somebody looking for this character is liable to type when Right Single Quote 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
’ has lookalikes that are a different character underneath. Search, sorting and anything that compares strings can tell them apart even where a reader cannot.
' (U+0027) is the ASCII apostrophe, the typewriter compromise. Prose wants this character; code wants the straight one, and a straight quote pasted into a shell script that has been through a word processor is the classic cause of a syntax error.
′ (U+2032) is prime, which marks feet, minutes of arc and derivatives, and is not an apostrophe.
What Unicode says about Right Single Quote
The standard recognises ’ under another name as well: single comma quotation mark. That is a formal alias, not a nickname, which is why it turns up in other people's documentation for the same codepoint.
Unicode annotates ’ directly. Against U+2019 the code chart carries the note “This is the preferred character to use for apostrophe”. That is the standard saying what the character is for, rather than an inference from its name.
The code chart points from ’ to Apostrophe, modifier letter apostrophe (U+02BC) and heavy single comma quotation mark ornament (U+275C). These are the characters the standard thinks you might have meant instead, which makes them the ones worth checking when Right Single Quote looks nearly right but not quite.
How Right Single Quote behaves in software
’ is East Asian Ambiguous: one column in a Western locale and two in a CJK one. That is why a table that lines up on your machine can break on somebody else's, with no change to the text at all. 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.
Every way to write Right Single Quote
| Form | Value |
|---|---|
| Codepoint | U+2019 |
| Decimal | 8217 |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 80 99 |
| UTF-16 bytes | 20 19 |
| HTML entity | ’ |
| HTML numeric | ’ or ’ |
| CSS | \2019 |
| JavaScript | \u2019 |
| Python | \u2019 |
| URL-encoded | %E2%80%99 |
| LaTeX, in prose | ' |
| SVG | 2019.svg · (SIL Open Font License) |
If ’ arrives as ’
Its three UTF-8 bytes E2 80 99 are being read one at a time as Windows-1252. The text is undamaged; the reader has to be told it is UTF-8.