Please, use real unicode quotes
PSA: ' and " (straight quotes) are almost never correct. These characters are legitimate, but they are for abbreviating length, like in 6' 11" (6 foot 11 inches). You should almost always be using real angled curly quotes, “” and ‘’, in prose. The correct character for abbreviations is the right single quote, U+2019, ’. Here’s an example! Here's what not to use.
The fact that straight quotes are prevalent in internet text is merely vestigal of our limited physical keyboard glyphs descended from typewriters—please, let’s leave these habits behind. Unicode gives us access to all the fine character nuances of professional-quality writing in every modern program.
You can input real quotes on Linux machines that use ibus (almost all Wayland compositors) using the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+U followed by the unicode—so to type a right single quotation mark, hit Ctrl+Shift+U, followed by 2019, and then hit enter. For inferior macOS and Windows users, consult your system help pages.
In the kitty terminal, Ctrl+Shift+U brings up a dedicated Unicode input panel that gives you a richer search experience. Inferior terminal glyphs end with us!
Please consult the tables below.
| Name | Symbol | Unicode |
|---|---|---|
| Left single quotation mark | ‘ | U+2018 |
| Right single quotation mark | ’ | U+2019 |
| Left double quotation mark | “ | U+201c |
| Right double quotation mark | ” | U+201d |
While we’re at it, please consider the three different dashes:
| Name | Symbol | Unicode | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyphen | - | The regular dash on your keyboard | Phrasal adjectives, multipart words | High-school, cost-effective |
| En-dash | – | U+2013 | Range (of numbers, values), connection or contrast | page 380–390, conservative–liberal |
| Em-dash | — | U+2014 | Break between parts of sentences | Em-dashes put a pause in the text—for when a comma doesn’t feel right. |