Thanks! You're right, I was confused. In the phrase "Pressing the
single-quote FOLLOWED by another character modifies the symbol BEFORE
POINT with an accent or a font.", I got tricked by the "followed". I
thought it meant: "press the single-quote, then the character YOU WANT
TO MODIFY". Of course, re-reading the sentence with your explanation
now makes sense.

I don't remember right now what I understood when I read it the first
time, but possibly I also interpreted the "symbol before point" as
"the symbol before point after you pressed the single-quote", hence my
confusion.

> "Modify PREVIOUS char/group/macro with math accent/style." does not
> contradict the above.

Indeed! that was my point. I got this docstring right, it was the
manual that I misread.

> You were clearly confused by the manual text, so you may certainly be
> improved.

> If you have a suggestion how to improve the present text in the manual,
> feel free to share it.

I don't know if it's worth changing it, but I may suggest to change
"modifies the symbol before point with an accent or a font."
with
"modifies the symbol before THE SINGLE-QUOTE with an accent or a font." ?

Thanks,
Alessandro