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This article will show you how to Type Accents on Windows and Mac. If you have a keyboard or a keyboard style that lets you type accented characters, it’s not hard to do. If you’re using a normal US English keyboard and sometimes need to type accents, it might seem hard because the keyboard doesn’t allow it.
So, there are three ways to type accents on Windows or Mac, and you can use any of them based on how easy you want the method to be and how often you need to type accents. The English alphabet isn’t the only alphabet out there. Even though many foreign languages use the English alphabet, they also have a lot of different versions of English alphabet characters with different accents that make them stand out from their English counterparts.
How to Type Accents on Windows
Use accents in Windows 11/10 with the Virtual Keyboard
- Right-click on your taskbar.
- Locate the Show touch keyboard button option in the list and click on it to add the virtual keyboard button to your taskbar.
- Now, press on the button that you just added to the taskbar. Its icon is that of a keyboard, therefore it is very easy to find.
- The virtual keyboard will open on your screen and you will be able to write using it.
- Click and hold on a character to get the option of using accent versions of it.
Use Alt codes to put accents on letters
- Turn on the Num Lock key on your keyboard.
- When starting to type, press and hold the Alt key, then type any combination of numbers from your number pad (located on the right side of your keyboard).
- Follow the image below to check the Windows Alt Codes for Accented Vowels.
- After you select the accented character that you want to type, release the Alt key.
- Repeat the process for any accented character that you want to use.
How to Type Accents on Mac
If you have the most recent version of macOS, you can type letters with accents by holding down a certain key for a long time. If you want to know more information about this Visit Official Apple Support site. To show the options for accents:
- Press and hold a letter on the keyboard until its alternative characters appear. The menu doesn’t pop up if no extra characters are available for the key you’re holding.
- Click on the character to pick it from the list — for example, á.
- You can also press the number key associated with the accented character you want to type. Another way is to use the left/right arrow keys. Once you select the needed character, tap the Space bar.
Use dead keys
If you use foreign characters often, it can save you a lot of time to learn some useful key combinations. How shortcuts work is as follows:
- Hold Option as a modifier key and press a key that corresponds to a specific diacritical mark.
- When the accent preview appears, release the keys and type the letter you want to apply the accent to.
At first, the dead keys might seem hard to use, but after a while, they’ll feel more normal. Check out the Keyboard Viewer to see where all the different accents are on your keyboard:
- Go to the Input menu on the right side of the menu bar.
- Choose Show Keyboard Viewer to open a new window with the keyboard layout. It’ll show the keyboard depending on the current input source you use.
- Hold the Option key to highlight the dead keys — they’re outlined in orange.
FAQs
For the letter è, for example, you would press Ctrl + ‘, let go, and then type e. To use a key combination that includes the SHIFT key to type a lowercase letter, hold down the CTRL, SHIFT, and symbol keys at the same time, and then let go of them before typing the letter.
In French, the sharp accent over the letter e shows that the word should be said as “ay.” This character is used over vowels in Spanish to show which phrase is most important in a word. This mark is sometimes used in English words that came from French.