English spellings/Catalogs/Apostrophe

From Citizendium
< English spellings‎ | Catalogs
Revision as of 18:56, 12 September 2009 by imported>Ro Thorpe (→‎Initial)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

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

All apostrophes are shaped (in fonts where there are different shapes) like a 9, not a 6, including initial ones (see below): this contrasts with the use of inverted commas, where the opening one is shaped like a 6 (or there can be two: 66) and the closing one 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 and medial

Final apostrophes usually follow an s to form the genitive plural of nouns (Mánx cáts' tâils); 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.