How to type accent letters on any keyboard

Every operating system solves the same problem in a different way, and the method you should learn depends entirely on which box you are sitting in front of. There are only four real families of method, and once you can name them the whole subject stops being confusing. Every shortcut on this page has been checked against the vendor documentation and the underlying keyboard layout files, so you can trust the codes before you try them.

The four families of method

1. Numeric codes (Windows). Hold Alt, type a number on the numeric keypad, release. Alt+0233 gives é. This is the oldest method and still the most widely known, but it needs a real numeric keypad with Num Lock switched on. The number row above the letters does not work.

2. Modifier keys (Mac, and layouts like US-International). You press a key that carries the accent, release it, then press the letter. On a Mac, Option+E then e gives é. Keys that behave this way are called dead keys because they produce nothing on their own.

3. Long press (phones, tablets, touch keyboards). Hold your finger on the base letter and a small menu of variants appears. This is the method almost nobody has to be taught.

4. Code point entry (Linux, ChromeOS). You type the Unicode number for the character directly, either with a Compose key sequence or with Ctrl+Shift+U followed by the hex code.

If you never want to learn any of them, the copy buttons on Accent Letter work the same way everywhere, and the Add accents to text tool will put the accents back into a whole block of text at once.

The 12 characters most people are looking for

These twelve cover the vast majority of English-language searches. The Windows column is the Alt code typed on the numeric keypad with Num Lock on; the Mac column uses the standard US or ABC layout; the phone column is the key you hold down.

Character	Windows	Mac	Phone (hold)	HTML
é	Alt+0233	Option+E, then e	e	é
è	Alt+0232	Option + backtick, then e	e	è
ê	Alt+0234	Option+I, then e	e	ê
ë	Alt+0235	Option+U, then e	e	ë
á	Alt+0225	Option+E, then a	a	á
ñ	Alt+0241	Option+N, then n	n	ñ

Character	Windows	Mac	Phone (hold)	HTML
ç	Alt+0231	Option+C	c	ç
ü	Alt+0252	Option+U, then u	u	ü
ö	Alt+0246	Option+U, then o	o	ö
ä	Alt+0228	Option+U, then a	a	ä
ø	Alt+0248	Option+O	o	ø
ß	Alt+0223	Option+S	s	ß

For capitals, add the leading uppercase Alt code on Windows (Alt+0201 for É, Alt+0209 for Ñ), or hold Shift on the second keystroke on a Mac. Phones show capitals when Shift or Caps Lock is active.

Windows in one paragraph

Windows gives you two numbering systems. Alt+0233 uses the modern Windows code page and is the one to memorise; Alt+130 uses the old DOS code page and produces the same é on a US English machine, which is why you see both floating around online. Both need the keypad. If your laptop has no keypad, Windows 11 has three good alternatives: the Win+. emoji panel has a Symbols tab with a Latin section, the US-International layout turns the apostrophe into an acute dead key, and Microsoft’s free PowerToys utility adds a hold-the-letter accent menu. Full detail is in How to type accents on Windows (Alt codes and layouts), with the complete code list in Accent letters Alt codes: the complete verified list, the layout walkthrough in The US International keyboard layout explained, and the keypad-free options in How to type accents on a laptop without a numeric keypad.

Mac in one paragraph

macOS has five dead keys that cover almost everything: Option+E for the acute, Option plus backtick for the grave, Option+I for the circumflex, Option+N for the tilde and Option+U for the diaeresis. A handful of letters sit directly on Option keys instead, including ç, ø, å and ß. If you would rather not memorise anything, hold a letter key down and the same variant menu you get on an iPhone appears on screen. See How to type accents on a Mac (Option key and press-and-hold) for the full tables, including the ABC Extended layout that adds Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Turkish letters.

Phones and tablets

iOS and Android both work by touch and hold. Apple’s own wording is to “touch and hold the letter, number, or symbol that’s related to the character you want”, then slide and release. The sets differ: iOS has a fixed list per key that grows with each major release, while Gboard on Android merges in extra letters for every language keyboard you enable, so adding Polish is how you get ł onto the l key. Read How to type accents on iPhone and iPad and How to type accents on Android (Gboard and Samsung) for the per-key lists and the Samsung Keyboard differences.

Chromebook and Linux

ChromeOS and most Linux desktops share the same two tricks. Ctrl+Shift+U, then the hex code, then Space or Enter, inserts any character by its Unicode number: e9 gives é and f1 gives ñ. Linux additionally offers the Compose key, which is far more memorable because the sequences look like what they produce. Compose then ' then e gives é; Compose then , then c gives ç; Compose then s then s gives ß. Setup instructions are in How to type accents on a Chromebook and How to type accents on Linux (Compose key).

In apps rather than in the operating system

Microsoft Word has its own shortcut set that works regardless of your keyboard: Ctrl+' then a vowel gives the acute, Ctrl+, then c gives ç. Word also accepts a Unicode number followed by Alt+X. Google Docs has no accent shortcut of its own and relies on Insert then Symbols then Special characters, or on whatever your operating system provides. See How to type accents in Microsoft Word (shortcuts and Alt+X) and How to type accents in Google Docs.

Picking a method that sticks

If you type accents daily in one language, install that language’s keyboard layout or the US-International layout and stop thinking about codes. If you need them a few times a week, learn the three or four shortcuts for your own letters. If it is genuinely occasional, copy and paste and get on with your day, and use Remove accents from text when you need to strip accents back out for a filename or a URL slug.

Which letters you need depends on the language. Spanish needs five accented vowels plus ñ and ü; French adds the circumflex and the œ ligature; German needs three umlauts and ß; Portuguese leans on the tilde; Polish uses letters that have no Windows Alt code at all. If the marks themselves are what you are curious about, What is a diacritic? Accent marks explained and Acute, grave, circumflex, tilde, umlaut: the difference cover the names and functions, Common accent mistakes and the confusable characters covers the errors that make text look wrong to native readers, and HTML entity, Unicode and CSS codes for accented letters has the entity and escape table for developers.