Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Contractions, or shortened groups of words, use the apostrophe to replace the missing letter. For example, if you want to connect “do not,” you can use an apostrophe to replace the second “o ...
English has a number of contractions, mostly involving the elision of a vowel, which is replaced by an apostrophe in writing, as in I'm for "I am", and sometimes other changes as well. Contractions are common in speech and in informal writing but tend to be avoided in more formal writing (with limited exceptions, such as the now-standard form ...
Hubert Selby Jr. used a slash instead of an apostrophe mark for contractions and did not use an apostrophe at all for possessives. Lewis Carroll made greater use of apostrophes, and frequently used sha'n't, with an apostrophe in place of the elided ll as well as the more usual o. [95] [96] These authors' usages have not become widespread.
Use straight apostrophes ('), not curly apostrophes (’). [g] Do not use accent marks or backticks (`) as apostrophes. Templates such as {} and {} are helpful when an apostrophe (or single quote) appears at the beginning or end of text in italics or bold, because italics and bold are themselves indicated by sequences of single quotes.
Some acronyms are formed by contraction; these are covered at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Abbreviations. Some trademarks (e.g. Nabisco) and titles of published works (e.g. “Ain't That a Shame”) consist of or contain contractions; these are covered at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Trademarks and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Titles, respectively.
Apostrophes An apostrophe makes something possessive, not plural. For example, “Season’s Greetings” is correct—you are sending someone greetings that belong to the season of the year.
The apostrophes represent the sounds that are removed and are not spoken but help the reader to understand that it is a contraction and not a word of its own. These contractions used to be written out when transcribed (i.e. cannot , is not , I am ) even if they were pronounced as a contraction, but now they are always written as a contraction ...
The second is a link to the article that details that symbol, using its Unicode standard name or common alias. (Holding the mouse pointer on the hyperlink will pop up a summary of the symbol's function.); The third gives symbols listed elsewhere in the table that are similar to it in meaning or appearance, or that may be confused with it;