About Left Single Quotation Mark Single Turned Comma Quotation Mark
Left Single Quotation Mark Single Turned Comma Quotation Mark is the Unicode character ‘ at codepoint U+2018 in the General Punctuation block of the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP).
Reference
A turned comma, raised. In English it opens a single quotation — the inner pair in American practice, frequently the outer pair in British house styles — and Unicode's chart notes that it is the preferred character as opposed to U+201B, the reversed form. Which end of a quotation it sits on is a language question, not a Unicode one: CLDR's locale data has it opening the alternate pair in English, closing it in German, and opening the primary pair in Dutch. It is general category Pi, initial punctuation — one of five such characters in General Punctuation. It is Windows-1252 0x91, and it carries three standardised variation sequences — non-fullwidth, right-justified fullwidth, and a Sibe form.
Typical uses
- Inner quotations in American practice; outer quotations in much British practice
- Primary quotation marks in Dutch, per CLDR
- Closing the alternate pair in German, where the sequence runs low-9 then this mark
At a glance
- U+2018, General Punctuation; Unicode 1.1; general category Pi
- HTML: ‘ or ‘. Windows-1252 0x91
- Chart note: preferred character as opposed to U+201B
- Three variation sequences: non-fullwidth, right-justified fullwidth, Sibe
Historical Notes
Origins
Its Unicode alias is the description of its shape: single turned comma quotation mark. Turning a comma and raising it is how printers made an opening mark, and the closing mark is the same comma unturned — which is why U+2019 is aliased single comma quotation mark.
Unicode
Unicode 1.1, General Punctuation, general category Pi. The chart cross-references the straight apostrophe, U+02BB MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA and U+275B, an ornament form. The note "this is the preferred character (as opposed to 201B)" distinguishes it from the reversed-9 variant.
The ʻokina
U+02BB, one of those cross-references, is the correct character for the ʻokina in Hawaiian and other Polynesian orthographies. It is a letter; this is punctuation. The substitution is common enough that the code chart links the two, and it has real consequences for line breaking, word selection and search, all of which treat letters and punctuation differently.
Developer Notes
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How to Use Left Single Quotation Mark Single Turned Comma Quotation Mark
To use the Left Single Quotation Mark Single Turned Comma Quotation Mark symbol (‘) in HTML, insert the
entity ‘ directly into your markup. The decimal entity ‘ works in any HTML-serialised document.
In CSS pseudo-elements use content: '\2018';.
In JavaScript and TypeScript the escape '\u2018' evaluates to ‘. In Python source, write '\u2018'.
The character encodes to E2 80 98 as UTF-8 bytes and 2018 as UTF-16 code units. Its decimal codepoint is 8216.
This is a text-based Unicode character. It will render in the current font on most platforms. If a font lacks this glyph, the browser may show a placeholder or fall back to a system font.
Things to know
- General category Pi (initial punctuation) rather than Po. Anything classifying characters by category will treat it differently from the straight quote.
- Windows-1252 0x91, so it round-trips through legacy eight-bit data — and mojibakes predictably when the encodings are confused.
- It is not an apostrophe. Naive smart-quote conversion supplies it at the start of a word, which is why '90s and 'twas come out pointing the wrong way.
- For the ʻokina use U+02BB, a letter. This character will render similarly and behave differently in search, selection and line breaking.
- Three standardised variation sequences exist (FE00, FE01, FE02). They are for East Asian and Sibe typography and are not needed in ordinary text.
Comparisons
In the Wild
The New York Times home page, on 4 August 2026, uses this mark where a newspaper traditionally does — in headlines, where single quotes stand in for double: The New Fed Chairman Wanted ‘Regime Change.’ and U.S. Trade Deficit Dips in June Along With ‘World Cup Effect’. Body copy on the same page uses the double pair instead.
The Guardian's international front page carried 35 of them against 106 closing single quotes, the imbalance accounted for by apostrophes, which use the closing mark.
Two absences are worth stating. NOS, the Dutch broadcaster whose language CLDR records as using this character for primary quotation, carried none at all on its home page — straight marks only. Neither Der Spiegel nor Dagens Nyheter carried one, and both curl their quotes: German and Swedish simply reach for other characters. Pages change; this is what those showed on the day.
FAQ
Is this an apostrophe?
No. The apostrophe is U+2019. Autocorrect supplying this one at the start of a word is the commonest small typographic error in English.
When does English use single quotes?
American practice reserves them for a quotation inside a quotation; British house styles often use them as the outer pair. Newspaper headlines use them regardless.
Why does German close with it?
Because German opens low, with U+201A, and closes high. CLDR's German locale records exactly that pairing for the alternate quotation marks.
What is U+201B?
The reversed form, single high-reversed-9 quotation mark. Unicode's chart says this character is preferred.
Can I use it for the ʻokina?
You can, and it is common, but U+02BB is correct. That one is a letter, and search and line breaking treat letters differently.