apóstrofe

An apóstrofe is a punctuation mark represented by a single character, usually ' or ’, used in various languages to indicate elision (the omission of letters), to show possession in some cases, or to mark certain orthographic or typographic conventions. The term comes from the Greek apostrophos, via Latin apóstrophus, meaning a turning away or a separation.

Uses and variants by language

- English: the apostrophe marks contractions (it's, can't) and possessives (the girl's book). It can also appear in quoted material within text or to indicate omitted letters in specialized contexts.

- Romance languages: in Italian and French, the apostrophe signals elision of a vowel between words (l'amico, c'est). In other Romance languages, similar elisions occur in pronunciation and orthography.

- Spanish: the standard orthography does not rely on the apostrophe to form contractions or possessives. Its use is limited and generally non-normative, often appearing only in transcriptions of foreign terms, names, or didactic examples.

- Other contexts: many languages use the apostrophe to indicate elision in loanwords or proper names. In Catalan, Occitan and related languages, elision with the apostrophe is part of normal typography.

Typography and computing

- The apostrophe can be used in string delimiters in programming languages, typically as a straight quote ('). The typographic or “curly” variant (’) is preferred in professionally typeset text.

- In digital typography, it is distinct from the prime symbol used in mathematics and from quotation marks, though visually similar in some fonts.

See also or related topics include quotation marks, elision in orthography, and the history of punctuation marks.