About Right Single Quotation Mark Single Comma Quotation Mark
Right Single Quotation Mark Single Comma Quotation Mark is the Unicode character ’ at codepoint U+2019 in the General Punctuation block of the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP).
Reference
Unicode is blunt here: the code chart states that this is the preferred character to use for apostrophe — not the straight mark on your keyboard. It closes a single quotation as well, so one character does two jobs, which looks untidy until you count what the straight mark is asked to cover. It is general category Pf, final punctuation, and carries three named HTML entities where most characters have one or none: ’, ’ and ’. It is Windows-1252 0x92, which is why it survives legacy pipelines and why it mojibakes so recognisably. CLDR has it closing the alternate pair in English and the primary pair in Dutch.
Typical uses
- The apostrophe in contractions and possessives, in typeset prose
- Closing a single quotation in English
- The elided article in French, where it is extremely frequent
At a glance
- U+2019, General Punctuation; Unicode 1.1; general category Pf
- Chart note: the preferred character to use for apostrophe
- HTML: ’, ’ or ’. Windows-1252 0x92
- Three variation sequences: non-fullwidth, left-justified fullwidth, Sibe
Historical Notes
Origins
Its Unicode alias names its shape: single comma quotation mark — a raised comma, where the opening mark is a raised comma turned around. The apostrophe took the same shape in metal type, which is why one character now serves both.
Unicode
Unicode 1.1, General Punctuation, general category Pf. The note preferring it for apostrophe is one of the more directive statements in the block. The chart cross-references the straight apostrophe, U+02BC MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE and the ornament U+275C.
A preference that lost
The standard prefers this character and keyboards do not offer it, so what most text contains is U+0027. The gap is filled by software: word processors, CMSes and phone keyboards curl apostrophes automatically, which is why the same page can carry both characters without anyone choosing.
Developer Notes
| Unicode Codepoint | |
| Decimal | |
| UTF-8 (hex) | |
| UTF-16 (hex) | |
| HEX Entity | |
| HTML Entity | |
| CSS (\xxxx) | |
| JavaScript | |
| Python |
How to Use Right Single Quotation Mark Single Comma Quotation Mark
To use the Right Single Quotation Mark Single 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: '\2019';.
In JavaScript and TypeScript the escape '\u2019' evaluates to ’. In Python source, write '\u2019'.
The character encodes to E2 80 99 as UTF-8 bytes and 2019 as UTF-16 code units. Its decimal codepoint is 8217.
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
- Windows-1252 0x92 makes it the most recognisable mojibake on the web: a UTF-8 apostrophe read as Windows-1252 comes out as ’.
- Text that has been curled and text that has not are different strings. Fold both forms before comparing user input to stored data.
- U+02BC MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE is a letter and is the right character where an apostrophe is part of a word's spelling rather than punctuation.
- Three named entities resolve to it — ’, ’ and ’ — all equivalent.
- General category Pf, final punctuation, so category-based tokenisers treat it differently from U+0027.
Comparisons
In the Wild
Le Monde's home page, on 4 August 2026, carried 238 of them against 27 straight apostrophes — French elides constantly (l', d', qu') and the site curls consistently. It also carried 100 pairs of guillemets and only three pairs of curly double quotes, so its quotation marks and its apostrophes are drawn from entirely different parts of Unicode.
AP's home page is the counter-example. It carried 111 curly apostrophes and 113 straight ones, including the same headline set both ways in two different slots on the page — "isn't" in one, "isn’t" in another.
The Guardian carried 106, BBC News zero. Dagens Nyheter, which curls its double quotes heavily, carried only two — Swedish contracts less than English or French, so the apostrophe is simply rarer. Pages change; this is what those showed on the day.
FAQ
Is this really the correct apostrophe?
Unicode's chart says so plainly. It is a preference in typeset prose; in code and data use the straight mark.
Why does my text show ’?
An encoding mismatch. Windows-1252 has this character at 0x92 and UTF-8 encodes it as three bytes; reading one as the other produces that sequence.
Why do searches miss names with apostrophes?
Because there are two apostrophe characters and most databases do not fold them. Normalise both forms before comparing.
It closes quotations too?
Yes. One character, two jobs — closing single quotation mark and apostrophe.
What is U+02BC?
Modifier letter apostrophe, a letter rather than punctuation, used where the mark is part of a word's spelling.