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The apostrophe – credit where credit is due

In German, the apostrophe is not only omnipresent, but also a jack of all trades: it can be used optionally to omit one or more letters of a word (classic example: “Rock and Roll” becomes “Rock ’n’ Roll”), and is also used in verb contractions as it is in English. It is indispensable if names with certain endings are to show the genitive case (“Grass’ Tin Drum”), and it is also used – to the displeasure of some linguistic purists – as a subdivision mark for multi-digit numbers.

The apostrophe, sometimes also referred to as a superscript comma or an inverted comma, does not have it easy: some of its less popular siblings – including the prime or foot mark ('), the accent grave (') and the simple closing quotation mark (') – are constantly trying to occupy its rightful place. However, it is very easy to stop all this confusion: you can create the preferred apostrophe by using the arcane gesture Alt + 0146 (Windows) or Shift + Alt + # (Mac) on keyboards with a numeric pad.

It gets a little more difficult when content management systems (CMS) come into play: some CMS find it difficult to use the special apostrophe character without coding. In such cases, the apostrophe can be easily encoded, for example using Unicode (U + 2019). This will ensure that no problems occur later on when using CMS and that the typographically correct apostrophe is used.

And in case you were wondering, Apostroph Group not only helps to ensure that the apostrophe is used correctly, it also helps its name be known throughout the world – even if it’s not quite the same word.

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