How to type accented letters on Windows, Mac and phones
The small marks on letters such as French café, German Übung or Spanish año are called diacritics, or accents. If your keyboard doesn't have them, here are the usual ways to type them.
Common diacritics
| Name | Mark | Examples | Used in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acute | ´ | é á í ó ú | French, Spanish, Portuguese |
| Grave | ` | è à ù | French, Italian |
| Circumflex | ^ | ê â ô | French, Portuguese |
| Diaeresis / umlaut | ¨ | ü ö ä ë | German, French |
| Tilde | ~ | ñ ã õ | Spanish, Portuguese |
| Cedilla | ¸ | ç ş | French, Portuguese, Turkish |
| Caron (háček) | ˇ | č š ž | Czech, Slovak, Croatian |
| Ring | ˚ | å ů | Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Czech |
| Macron | ¯ | ā ē ō | Latvian, Māori, Hawaiian |
Windows
- Symbol panel: press Windows+. (full stop) to open the emoji panel, then pick the symbols tab (Ω) for accented letters.
- Alt codes: with Num Lock on, hold Alt, type a number on the numeric keypad, then release Alt. For example Alt+0233 → é, 0241 → ñ, 0252 → ü, 0231 → ç.
- US-International layout: add "English (United States) – United States-International" in Settings. Then type the mark first and the letter second: ' then e gives é, " then u gives ü. The fastest option if you type accents every day.
Mac
- Press and hold: hold e and a row of options (è é ê ë…) appears; press the number or click one.
- Option combinations: type the mark, then the letter.
- Option+E, then e → é
- Option+`, then a → à
- Option+I, then o → ô
- Option+U, then u → ü
- Option+N, then n → ñ
- Option+C → ç, Option+S → ß
iPhone and Android
Touch and hold a letter on the keyboard and accented versions pop up; slide to the one you want before lifting your finger. If you write a language often, adding its keyboard in Settings is even quicker.
No setup at all: Phonokey
On a school or work computer where you can't change settings, or when you only need an accent now and then, typing in the browser is simplest. Phonokey has keyboards for 40 languages.
- Open a language keyboard (for example French, German or Spanish) and click the buttons.
- On a computer, pressing Ctrl+a letter repeatedly steps through the options: on the French keyboard, each Ctrl+A gives à → â → æ.
- For capitals, hold Shift while clicking, or switch on the ⇧ button.
- When you're done, press Copy all and paste wherever you need it.