This template, {{'-}} or Template:Single space, uses the decimal code for the apostrophe or single-quote character so that it doesn't become interpreted with adjacent italics ('') or bold (''') wiki markup, or visually confused with other quotation marks.

This template leaves leading space before the single quotation mark/apostrophe, unlike the similar {{`}} (no spacing), {{'-}} (trailing space after the single quote) and {{'}} (smaller leading space before the apostrophe). It does not insert any semantically-invalid space characters, but does all the spacing visually-only, in CSS.

This template is intended for use with double-quote-providing templates when the content quoted starts on the left-hand side with an apostrophe/single quote, whereas {{'-}} is for the right-hand side, {{'}} is intended for use with italic text, and {{`}} is for non-italic text.

Typical use in a citation template:

|title={{-'}}My Two Front Teeth': A Critical Review

results in:

"'My Two Front Teeth': A Critical Review"

compared to:

"'My Two Front Teeth': A Critical Review"

produced by:

|title='My Two Front Teeth': A Critical Review

Note the slight visual spacing difference between these two:

  • "'My
  • "'My

The equivalent template when manually placing double quotes around a single-quoted passage is {{" '}}; see also {{'-}} and {{' "}} for the right-hand side equivalents (parameter and manual, respectively).

Quotation mark and apostrophe templates