Russian Language/Grammar Help. please?

Question

hi, im 15, and im trying to teach myself the basics of the russian language. ive already done japanese and spanish. but what happens to the character when you put an apostrophe over it? i know if you put a "ь" after a consonant it makes it a soft sound, but what happens when you put an apostrophe over a character?

Answer 1

May be they replaced letter "ъ" with apostrophe which is rare for example об'явление (объявление)  

Answer 2

there's no apostrophe in the russian language,

the apostrophe that you see in dictionaries and learning books or sites is a sign to show where the accent is, because when you have more than one vowel in a russian word you make an accent on just one vowel and the apostrophe show you which one

Answer 3

I agree with the two previous answers with some clarifications.

If the apostrophe follows a consonant it may be used in place of "ъ" which is the "hard sign" and shows the preceding consonant is not palatalized.  It is sometimes called a separation sign and appears frequently between a prefix and root.

If the apostrophe appears over a vowel (actually a grave or accute accent depending on the font used) it is used to show which accent is stressed.  Russian vowel reduction is extremely important, and the accent helps to show the stress.  You will only find marked syllables in dictionaries or textbooks though.