Apostrophes and Quotation Marks

To texturize or not to texturize, that is the question.

In the contemporary Unicode specs, it’s been left to “software” to sort out what Unicode characters for apostrophes and quotation marks are correct in context. Microsoft Word handles “smart” or “curly” apostrophes and quotation marks automatically. So does WordPress. We’ve gotten used to 20+ years of automagical text filtering, but sometimes it still doesn’t work right. Even Grammarly, with its sophisticated AI proofreader, isn’t perfect and may make a mess of your curly quotes and apostrophes. Here’s what you need to know to get your typography right as you type, with or without artificial interference.

Strangely, the half-width¹, neutral apostrophe  '  (U+0027) is accepted as both an apostrophe and a single quotation mark, while the current Unicode standard (15.0.0 chapter 6) calls the right single quotation mark  ’  (U+2019 “the preferred character to use for [sic] apostrophe.” Even when a font mutes the differences between these characters, their unique qualities become apparent alongside each other and at larger scales.

What we usually do is wrong. 🤷

North American English keyboards have the “neutral,” “vertical,” or “dumb” ASCII (0x27) and Unicode (U+0027) apostrophes  '  mapped to the same key as the neutral quotation or surprisingly ancient western “ditto” mark  "  (ASCII 0x22 and U+0022), which sits above the apostrophe in the shift position.² Don’t confuse it with the CJK/Asian Ditto Mark  〃  (U+3003) In practice, the neutral apostrophe can double as a single quote mark, and both the apostrophe and double quotes can be used to open or close quoted text on either the left or right side.

In the contemporary Unicode specs, it’s been left to “software” to sort out what Unicode character is correct in context. Microsoft Word handles “smart” quotes and “curly” apostrophes automatically. So does WordPress. We’ve gotten used to 20+ years of automagical text filtering, but sometimes it still doesn’t work right. Even Grammarly, with its sophisticated AI proofreader, isn’t perfect. Here’s what you need to know to get your typography right as you type, with or without artificial interference.

Getting apostrophes right — in English usage. ✅

Self-described “language geek” Chris Harvey notes, “As a general rule, where Native speakers are bilingual in English, they use “English quotes,” and where they are bilingual in French, «French quotes» are more common (note there are not necessarily spaces surrounding the guillemets as in continental French).”

How WordPress Tries to Correct Typography 🤖

It’s not hard to type the proper characters for nicely styled “curly” quotes and apostrophes on a Mac (since OS X) as opposed to Windows and Linux. But since a Windows user co-founded WordPress, WordPress got Texturize.

Matt Mullenweg’s wptexturize() filter (first written for b2) has been in WordPress core from the beginning. It changes how a lot of your source text in content items is rendered on the front end, but it does not change the source itself. It does not run within the editor either, so you can’t see what it will do without looking at the front end or a preview.

In the era of the block editor, it makes sense for everything that happens to content published on the front end to also happen on the back end when it’s being written and edited. It also makes sense to turn wptexturize() off — completely. If your typography is in good shape at the source, you can globally disable wptexturize() properly with the following filter added to your theme’s functions.php file:

add_filter('run_wptexturize', '__return_false');

Testing Texturize 🔤

In most cases, the old Texturize filter works well, and you don’t notice when it doesn’t. Here are the typical cases where it does and doesn’t work. In each example, I use neutral apostrophes and quotation marks set against (vs.) manually keyed-in “curled” apostrophes and quotation marks. When Texturize works, the result on both sides is the same.

Test’s vs. Test’s —  OK 

<p>Test's vs. Test’s</p> // wptexturize() makes the dumb apostrophe smart.

Test’s vs. Test’s —  OK 

<p><strong>Test's</strong> vs. <strong>Test’s</strong></p>

// wptexturize() is unfazed by apostrophes within <strong> tags. They still get curled.

“Test” vs. “Test” —  OK 

<p>"<strong>Test</strong>" vs. “<strong>Test</strong>”</p>

// wptexturize() is unfazed by apostrophes outside <strong> tags. They still get curled.

<p><strong>Test</strong>'s vs. <strong>Test<strong>’s</p>

<p><em>Test</em>'s vs. <em>Test<em>’s</p>

// Look closely — the differences are subtle here. For some reason wptexturize() makes the first (neutral) apostrophes into U+2018 left single quotation marks when an HTML tag gets between them and the word they're part of.

Ultimately, consistent and accurate typography requires understanding the appropriate use of Unicode characters, and you need to be mindful of automated changes made by software.

Consider your punctuation

As you build out your content with Kadence Blocks, consider your punctuation and the appropriate use of Unicode characters. While there are not any specific issues with Gutenberg or Kadence Blocks, the texturize filter does run on all block content. Consider disabling it and type in exactly what you want to see in the rendered page output when using quotes and apostrophes in your content.