How can I format ^' better?

I met a format problem: when I use

$\hat{}$'


to present ‘^’, I found that the output format is very crowded. I mean the three character

" ‘ ", " ^ ", and " ’ " are printed in an excessively compact form. Anyone can give me a hint to format it better. What I want is something like ‘^’.

Add some spacing, a thin space could be what you want:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

We use $\,\hat{}\,$' over a symbol to denote

\end{document}


• @ egreg, Thanks for your useful hint. I have chosen \> as the space in this case. – Enter Jun 20 '15 at 11:49

A solution which doesn't require extra spacing: \^{}. (\textasciicircum works too.)

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
We use \^{}' over a symbol to denote
\end{document}

• Note this assumes the text font matches the math font. – Andrew Swann Jun 20 '15 at 14:31
• @AndrewSwann - the OP wasn't sufficiently specific about the use case, but I suspect it's more appropriate to use text mode than math mode. Maybe the OP will weigh in and clarify the intended use. – Mico Jun 20 '15 at 15:12