` is not an apostrophe!, ' is an apostrophe Options

[*mipadi*]

I have no idea why, but it seems that every other post I read has someone, at least one person, who uses the ` character as an apostrophe. ` is not an apostrophe! ' is an apostrophe! It's easy to tell them apart: ' is straight up and down. ` is not. ' is located immediately to the left of the return key (or the enter key for you Windows folks). ` is located to the left of the 1 key. I have no idea what ` is used for exactly, but it is not an apostrophe, and should not be used as such! Take note of the following examples:

This is incorrect:
My brother`s name is Joe and he`s fourteen years old.

This is what it should be:
My brother's name is Joe and he's fourteen years old.

Educate yourselves. Use the correct character for an apostrophe!


By the way, I think this was brought up before--possibly somewhere in the excellent English 101 thread, but I found the improper usage of ` so widespread that I thought it should be highlighted all on its own. The improper use of ` is a growing epidemic that must be stopped!