Many writers seem to think that the single quotation mark is a perfect choice anytime you sort of want quotation marks, but also sort of don’t: The word ‘legend’ gets thrown around a lot.

For example, it comes up a lot in truncated decades like “the ’80s.” In fact, that’s about the only time this unintended single quotation mark crops up — in decades.

What to Know MS Word: Type ALT + 0145 for a left single quotation mark or apostrophe and ALT + 0146 for a right one. Type ALT + 0147 for a left double quotation mark and ALT + 0148 for a right one.