English spellings/Catalogs/Apostrophe

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Revision as of 17:53, 21 July 2009 by imported>Ro Thorpe (Final apostrophes)
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Use in English
Alphabetical word list
Retroalphabetical list  
Common misspellings  

Initial

Like all others, the initial apostrophe is shaped (in fonts where there are different shapes) like a 9, not a 6: this contrasts with the use of inverted commas, where the opening comma is shaped like a 6 (or there can be two: 66) and the closing comma like a 9 (or 99): "sixty-sixes and ninety-nines".

Words that begin with an apostrophe are:

’em them = um hmmm *əm

’tís and ’tẁas - poetic use of initial apostrophe, replacing omitted initial í of ít ís and ít ẁas

Final

Final apostrophes usually follow an s to form the genitive plural of nouns; otherwise, like medial apostrophes, they signify a missing letter or letters. Hence there is no point in listing examples; for more see the main article.