Hebrew Punctuation Geresh

Use a Hebrew layout’s third-level key or a character picker.

On a Hebrew layout, Right Alt + backquote produces it; other layouts may use another key.

A system character picker can also insert the Hebrew punctuation mark when your keyboard layout does not offer it directly.

What does the Hebrew geresh mean?

It marks abbreviations, numeral letters, and added consonant sounds.

In Hebrew abbreviations, it follows the last letter of a shortened word. After a single Hebrew letter used as a number, it tells you to read that letter numerically. In some Hebrew spellings of foreign names, it follows a consonant to signal an added sound: ג׳ can represent the opening sound in English “jam.”

Older Hebrew texts used one or two dots above unpointed letters—letters written without vowel marks—to mark numerals and abbreviations; geresh and gershayim gradually took over that job. An elongated form of geresh is documented in Sephardic, Ashkenazic, and Italian Jewish sources from the 13th through 18th centuries.

Why is the Hebrew geresh different from an apostrophe?

They look alike but are separate characters with different jobs.

The ASCII apostrophe ' is not the Hebrew punctuation mark. Hebrew Accent Geresh ֜ is a different sign used above letters as a cantillation mark, a cue for chanting Biblical text. Gershayim ״ uses a doubled mark before the final letter of multi-letter abbreviations and numerals.