Quick answer
For occasional accents, use the accent keyboard above or press and hold a letter on a phone. On Mac, Option-key dead keys add common accents. On Windows, use an international layout or Word's built-in shortcuts for repeated writing.
Choose a method based on how often you type accents
Copy and paste is efficient for one letter. If you write another language regularly, add the correct keyboard layout; it provides faster accents, punctuation, and spell-check behavior than memorizing dozens of numeric codes.
| Situation | Best method |
|---|---|
| One accented letter | Use the accent keyboard or copy the character |
| Regular bilingual writing | Add a language or international keyboard layout |
| Microsoft Word | Use Word’s accent shortcuts or Insert → Symbol |
| iPhone/Android | Press and hold the base letter |
| Web publishing | Store and serve text as UTF-8 |
Type accents on Windows
Windows offers several approaches. The touch keyboard lets you press and hold letters. The U.S.-International layout turns keys such as apostrophe, grave accent, quotation mark, tilde, and caret into dead keys that combine with the next compatible letter.
For example, with an international layout, the acute-accent dead key followed by e creates é; tilde followed by n creates ñ. To type the punctuation mark by itself, press Space after the dead key. Exact behavior varies by layout, so test it before changing a shared computer.
Alt codes exist for many Latin-1 letters, but they are difficult to memorize and require a numeric keypad. They are a fallback, not the most comfortable system for writing whole paragraphs.
Type accents on a Mac
Many macOS apps show an accent menu when you press and hold a letter. Choose the numbered option or click the character. For faster touch typing, Option combinations act as dead keys on the U.S. layout:
| Accent | First keys | Then type | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acute ´ | Option + E |
the letter | é |
| Grave ` | Option + ` |
the letter | è |
| Circumflex ˆ | Option + I |
the letter | ê |
| Diaeresis ¨ | Option + U |
the letter | ë |
| Tilde ˜ | Option + N |
the letter | ñ |
These combinations depend on the active input source. Character Viewer remains the visual fallback.
Type accents in Microsoft Word
Word has mnemonic shortcuts. Press Ctrl plus the key that resembles the accent, release, then type the letter. For an acute accent, press Ctrl + apostrophe, then e. For a diaeresis, press Ctrl + Shift + colon, then the letter.
Insert → Symbol is useful for less common letters. AutoCorrect can also expand a personal trigger into a name or term that you type frequently.
Type accents in Google Docs and Chromebook
In Google Docs, choose Insert → Symbols → Special characters and search for the letter or accent name. A Chromebook can add language input methods through system settings; the U.S. International keyboard is useful for several Western European languages.
For occasional input, the on-screen keyboard or direct copy/paste avoids changing a layout. For sustained language writing, the correct language keyboard gives more predictable punctuation and autocorrection.
Type accents on iPhone and Android
Press and hold the base letter. Without lifting your finger, move to the accented version and release. If the letter is absent, add the relevant language keyboard in the device settings; available variants depend on the keyboard app and language.
Use accented text on websites and in code
Set documents and APIs to UTF-8 and use the real letters. Named HTML entities exist for common Latin-1 characters, but literal UTF-8 text is easier to read and maintain. Normalize user input when software compares identifiers or filenames, because visually identical text can use precomposed or combining sequences.
Troubleshooting
If an apostrophe waits for the next key, a dead-key layout is active. Press Space to insert the punctuation itself. If text becomes é instead of é, the file was decoded using the wrong character encoding. Keep the full path—editor, database, HTTP headers, and page—on UTF-8.
References and compatibility
These platform references explain the input methods used above. Availability varies by app and keyboard layout; a Unicode value is not automatically a numeric-keypad Alt code.
Editorial note: Shortcuts can vary by keyboard layout and app. Check the stated platform and use the copy-and-paste fallback when needed. Report a correction with your device, layout, and application; see our editorial policy for limitations.