What is the difference between ' and ` ?

[LowLevelWhingeing]

Why do some people use ' and some people use ` ? Are they really interchangeable?

(Really bugs me when searching the database at work that it could be Mr O'Neil or Mr O`Neil).

God that's dull but I need to know!

are the pedants up yet?

Is there no 'wild' symbol on your database? It's a percentage sign on the one I use at work so I could put O%Neill and it would come up with both.

I don't know the answer to your question though.

Oh yes indeed. I agree. Its just like the difference between ' · ' [decimal place] and a ' . ' [full stop].

These two symbols are not interchagable. The positioning above the line matters.

Well it matters to me anyway.

Well I didn't know that Besom! No training given so I've had to find my own way around its crapness idiosyncracies.

ABetaDad, so they are not interchangeable, but which is right?

' or ` ?

And I can't even do your fancy above-the-line decimal point!

Smart Quotes (the ones that curl in) are NOT valid in HTML web documents.

Use only ' or " on the web.

Everything Microsoft breaks web standards.

` is a grave accent (eg, as in à) whereas ' is an apostrophe.

But if ` is a grave accent, how do you get it above a letter when it's just on a key on its own?

i know where acute accents are (control alt e) but where are the grave's??

Thanks.

on my keyboard it's far left, next to the z. But I'm on a mac.

and ctrl alt e doesn't work for me

That depends on the operating system running on the computer as well as what the keyboard settings are. If you set the PC to expect a language that uses accents, then will either work as a dead key (you press the and then the letter you want and it produces a single character) or you may need to press AltGr or Option and ` together followed by the letter.

On US/UK keyboards the grave accent is a bit of an anachronism to be honest. I think it's got some significance in certain programming languages (as do symbols such as ¦ and ¬) but it's very rarely used in day to day work. The basic keyboard layouts we use today came about in the '80s and have their roots in IBM mainframe terminals from the 70s. This is why they still have the SysRq and Scroll Lock buttons for example - they're from mainframe days.

Cor Snorbs, you are very knowledgeable about keyboards!

So basically, is never correct when used as an apostrophe and should NOT be used in Mr OMally. It should always be Mr O'Mally.

I've a good mind to send a global e-mail to all database inputters...

I think people think that ` is a single curly opening quotation mark. It annoys me when they use it as an apostrophe since an apostrophe is a closing curly quotation mark (if not a straight one) ' is a straight single quotation mark - so it can be used at the beginning or the end of a quotation. If you type ' or " in some programs (e.g. Word) it automatically converts them to curly quotes facing the correct way for the quote they surround.

HTH, it seems a bit jumbled.

On a Mac it's alt and certain letters BTW.

[sad old geek emoticon]