E with Accent (é è ê ë)
E with accent is é (acute), è (grave), ê (circumflex), ë (diaeresis) or ē (macron); tap one below to copy it. On Windows, hold Alt and type the letter's code from the Alt code table on the number pad. On iPhone or Android, touch and hold E and slide to the accent you need.
How do you type é on a keyboard or phone?
On a Mac, é is Option+E, then E; on Windows it is Alt+0233. Each row below gives the documented method for one device or app, phones included; the vendor help pages they come from are linked under the table.
| Device or app | Keys |
|---|---|
| Mac | Option+E, then E How to type accents on a Mac |
| Windows | Alt+0233 How to type accents on Windows |
| Windows, US-International | AltGr+E |
| iPhone, iPad | Touch and hold E, then slide to é |
| Android | Touch and hold E, then slide to é |
| Chromebook | Switch to the US International keyboard, then ', then E How to type accents on a Chromebook |
| Microsoft Word | Ctrl+', then E How to type accents in Word |
| Google Docs | Insert, then Symbols, then Special characters, then search "latin small letter e with acute" How to type accents in Google Docs |
Sources:Mac (Apple) (opens in a new tab)Windows (Microsoft) (opens in a new tab)Windows, US-International (Microsoft) (opens in a new tab)iPhone, iPad (Apple) (opens in a new tab)Android (Google) (opens in a new tab)Chromebook (Google) (opens in a new tab)Microsoft Word (Microsoft) (opens in a new tab)Google Docs (Google) (opens in a new tab)
- é e with acute · used in 35 languages
- è e with grave · used in 21 languages
- ê e with circumflex · used in 14 languages
- ë e with diaeresis · used in 10 languages
- ē e with macron · used in 4 languages
Which e accent do you need?
The language you are writing decides which e with accent mark you need. The only e with accent Spanish uses is é. French writes é, è, ê and ë, and Larousse gives every e with accent French uses a job of its own. The ē with a line over it belongs to Latvian in the Unicode CLDR alphabets that AccentPad draws on. Each note below names the mark, where it is used and its documented Mac shortcut.
é, the acute accent
The acute e, é, is the one most people have in mind. In French it is the e with accent aigu, and Larousse defines the mark as the sign for the closed e of été. Spanish writes it in qué and también, Portuguese in até, and English keeps it in borrowed words like café, cliché and résumé.
Spanish dropped a few in 2010: the RAE's summary of its new Ortografía (opens in a new tab) counts fie and lie, from fiar and liar, as words of one syllable, so they no longer take the tilde. On a Mac, press Option+E, then E.
è, the grave accent
The e with accent grave, è, slopes the other way. Larousse says that in French it marks the open e, so père does not sound like été. Italian puts it on caffè and cioè, and Catalan and Vietnamese use è too. On a Mac, press Option and the backtick key, then E.
ê, the circumflex
The circumflex is the little hat on ê. French writes it in être, même and fête, and Larousse notes that the French circumflex can mark a long vowel or tell two words apart. Portuguese uses ê in você and três. On a Mac, press Option+I, then E.
ë, the diaeresis
The two dots on ë are a diaeresis, which French calls the tréma. Larousse explains that the tréma tells you to say the vowel on its own, as in aiguë, and the same rule gives Noël its two syllables. Dutch, Afrikaans and Albanian use ë as well: the Albanian cities Durrës and Vlorë are spelled with it. On a Mac, press Option+U, then E.
ē, the macron
The macron is the straight line on ē. Latvian names such as Jēkabs and Valērijs carry it. Windows has no Alt code for ē, so use the Symbols tab of the Windows emoji panel or copy ē from the tiles above. On a Mac, press and hold E and choose ē.
Did the 1990 spelling reform turn French é into è?
In some words it did, and both spellings now count as correct. The 1990 rectifications of French spelling, which the Académie française (opens in a new tab) lists in its dictionary, put a grave accent where an é is said as the open e of père.
| Spelling before 1990 | Spelling the rectifications allow | What the rule covers |
|---|---|---|
| événement | évènement | a word where usage hesitates, so the dictionary records both |
| je céderai, je céderais | je cèderai, je cèderais | the future and conditional of verbs like céder, now accented like semer |
| empiétement, crémerie | empiètement, crèmerie | words whose é is said as è |
| j'amoncelle, j'étiquette | j'amoncèle, j'étiquète | verbs in -eler and -eter, except appeler and jeter |
The Académie keeps the older spellings as well. It marks each reformed spelling with a ◇ and leaves the choice to usage, and it notes that the press already prints évènement and cèdera often. So a French text with évènement is not misspelled, and neither is one with événement. The same reform moved the tréma of aiguë, which the e with umlaut page covers.
Which Alt code types each e with accent?
The Alt code for e with accent depends on the mark and the case: Alt+0233 gives é, and Alt+0201 gives the uppercase e with accent, É. Every e with an accent mark except ē has a code. Turn on Num Lock, hold Alt, key in the four digits on the number pad, then let go.
| Letter | Alt code | Capital | Alt code of the capital |
|---|---|---|---|
| é | Alt+0233 | É | Alt+0201 |
| è | Alt+0232 | È | Alt+0200 |
| ê | Alt+0234 | Ê | Alt+0202 |
| ë | Alt+0235 | Ë | Alt+0203 |
| ē | none | Ē | none |
Each e with accent Alt code above is a position in Windows code page 1252. Unicode's mapping file for that code page (opens in a new tab) puts é at byte E9, which is 233 in decimal, and maps that byte to U+00E9. So for these letters the Alt code is the Unicode code point written in decimal.
The file has no ē, which is why no Alt code can type it: use the Symbols tab of the emoji panel, or copy ē from the tiles above.
Which languages use é, è, ê, ë or ē?
Between them, é, è, ê, ë and ē are part of the standard alphabet of 48 languages in the Unicode CLDR. Each letter's languages:
- é
- 35 languages:
- Afrikaans
- Anii
- Asturian
- Catalan
- Czech
- Dutch
- Ewe
- French
- Galician
- Hungarian
- Icelandic
- Interlingue
- Irish
- Italian
- Javanese
- Kaingang
- Ligurian
- Luxembourgish
- Nigerian Pidgin
- Norwegian
- Occitan
- Piedmontese
- Portuguese
- Romansh
- Slovak
- Spanish
- Sundanese
- Swedish
- Tongan
- Venetian
- Vietnamese
- Welsh
- Western Frisian
- Wolof
- Yoruba
- è
- 21 languages:
- Afrikaans
- Anii
- Catalan
- Ewe
- French
- Haitian Creole
- Italian
- Javanese
- Ligurian
- Maltese
- Occitan
- Piedmontese
- Romansh
- Sardinian
- Scottish Gaelic
- Sicilian
- Venetian
- Vietnamese
- Welsh
- Western Frisian
- Yoruba
- ê
- 14 languages:
- Afrikaans
- Anii
- Breton
- French
- Javanese
- Kurdish
- Ligurian
- Northern Sotho
- Portuguese
- Sicilian
- Tswana
- Vietnamese
- Welsh
- Western Frisian
- ë
- 10 languages:
- Afrikaans
- Albanian
- Dutch
- French
- Ligurian
- Luxembourgish
- Piedmontese
- Welsh
- Western Frisian
- Wolof
- ē
- 4 languages: Kuvi, Latvian, Māori, Tongan
How do you pronounce é, è, ê, ë or ē?
WikiPron transcribes these letters in common words from Wiktionary: in French, était is /etɛ/; in French, très is /tʁɛ/; in French, être is /ɛtʁ/. The table gives one example word per letter and language.
| Letter | Language | Example | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| é | French | était | /etɛ/ |
| é | Spanish | qué | /ke/ |
| é | Portuguese | até | /atɛ/ |
| é | Italian | perché | /perke/ |
| è | French | très | /tʁɛ/ |
| è | Italian | cioè | /t͡ʃoɛ/ |
| ê | French | être | /ɛtʁ/ |
| ê | Portuguese | você | /vose/ |
| ë | French | noël | /nɔɛl/ |
The WikiPron lists used here have no example word for ē.
Which common words use é, è, ê, ë or ē?
FrequencyWords counts the words used in film and TV subtitles, and its lists give these as the most frequent words with each letter in each language, most common first.
- é
- Spanish:
- qué
- él
- sé
- quién
- también
- después
- pensé
- haré
French:- était
- été
- étais
- déjà
- désolé
- passé
- trouvé
- hé
Portuguese:- até
- também
- és
- alguém
- ninguém
- sério
- bebé
- além
Italian:- perché
- finché
- né
- sé
- poiché
- affinché
- granché
- dopodiché
- è
- French:
- très
- père
- après
- mère
- problème
- dernière
- frère
- première
Italian:- cioè
- caffè
- tè
- bè
- vabbè
- mosè
- ahimè
- dèi
- ê
- French:
- être
- même
- êtes
- tête
- arrête
- arrêter
- prêt
- fête
Portuguese:- você
- quê
- vocês
- têm
- três
- porquê
- vê
- vês
- ë
- French:
- noël
- israël
- aiguë
- canoë
- raphaël
- joël
- noëls
- ciguë
No list here has a common word with ē.
Which English words keep é, è, ê, ë or ē?
Wiktionary lists these English words spelled with each letter, most common first by how often they appear in English subtitles:
- é
- fiancé
- fiancée
- café
- cliché
- résumé
- olé
- touché
- attaché
- séance
- protégé
- è
- crème, très, rivière
Wiktionary lists no English word with ê, ë and ē that English subtitles use.
Which names and places are spelled with é, è, ê, ë or ē?
Given names come from Wikidata, the most widely covered first by the number of Wikipedia editions about them, and places come from the GeoNames list of cities, largest population first, kept only where an official language of the country writes the letter.
- é
- Given names:
- René
- José
- André
- Géza
- Éder
- Andrés
- Aurélie
- Cécile
- Béla
- Étienne
- Aimée
- Aimé
Places:- Lomé (Togo)
- Montréal (Canada)
- Santiago de Querétaro (Mexico)
- Belém (Brazil)
- Yaoundé (Cameroon)
- Mérida (Mexico)
- Salé (Morocco)
- Bouaké (Côte d’Ivoire)
- è
- Given names:
- Arsène
- Giosuè
- Thérèse
- Eugène
- Bérengère
- Agnès
- Angèle
- Hélène
- Danièle
- Adèle
- Geneviève
- Aurèle
Places:- Thiès (Senegal)
- Godomè (Benin)
- Thiès Nones (Senegal)
- Liège (Belgium)
- Gurúè (Mozambique)
- Fès al Bali (Morocco)
- Trois-Rivières (Canada)
- Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles (Canada)
Gurúè is spelled with è in GeoNames. It is listed because Portuguese counts è only among its auxiliary letters, outside its alphabet; the alphabet has é and ê.
- ê
Given names: Inês, Estêvão
Places:- Biên Hòa (Vietnam)
- Thái Nguyên (Vietnam)
- Long Biên (Vietnam)
- Bắc Từ Liêm (Vietnam)
- Long Xuyên (Vietnam)
- Phổ Yên (Vietnam)
- Việt Yên (Vietnam)
- Thanh Khê (Vietnam)
- ë
- Given names:
- Raphaël
- Joël
- Gaël
- Gëzim
- Henriëtte
- Gaëlle
- Maëlys
- Joëlle
- Zoë
- Maëlle
- Mërgim
- Judicaël
Places:- Durrës (Albania)
- Vlorë (Albania)
- Mitrovicë (Kosovo)
- Shkodër (Albania)
- Gjakovë (Kosovo)
- Lushnjë (Albania)
- Korçë (Albania)
- Krujë (Albania)
- ē
Given names: Pēteris, Jēkabs, Valērijs
Places: Rēzekne (Latvia), Jēkabpils (Latvia), Cēsis (Latvia)
How to type e with accent, step by step
Step 1: On a Mac
Press Option+E, let go, then press E to get é. Option and the backtick key give è, Option+I gives ê and Option+U gives ë, each followed by E. To reach ē, press and hold E and choose it from the menu that opens.
Step 2: On Windows
Turn on Num Lock, hold Alt, type the letter's code from the Alt code table on the number pad, then let go of Alt. The digits on the top row do not work. Without a number pad, press the Windows key and the period key, open Symbols and pick the letter.
Step 3: On iPhone or Android
Touch and hold E on the on-screen keyboard, slide your finger to é, è, ê, ë or ē and lift it. Turn on Shift first for a capital letter.
Step 4: On a Chromebook
Switch to the US International keyboard in settings. Press the apostrophe key, then E, to get é. The backtick key gives è, the caret key gives ê and Shift with the apostrophe key gives ë, each followed by E.
Step 5: In Microsoft Word
Press Ctrl and the apostrophe key together, then E, to get é. Ctrl with the backtick key gives è, Ctrl+Shift+^ gives ê and Ctrl+Shift+: gives ë, each followed by E. For ē, Word has no accent key: type its Unicode code and press Alt+X, and Word turns the code into the letter.
What are the Alt codes for e with accent?
Hold Alt and type the digits on the number pad with Num Lock on. The top row of digits does not work, and laptops without a number pad need the methods above.
| Letter | Alt code |
|---|---|
| é | Alt+0233 |
| è | Alt+0232 |
| ê | Alt+0234 |
| ë | Alt+0235 |
| É | Alt+0201 |
| È | Alt+0200 |
| Ê | Alt+0202 |
| Ë | Alt+0203 |
ē Ē have no Alt code: Windows cannot type them that way.
What are all the e letters with accents?
Every e with an accent mark on AccentPad, lowercase then capitals. Tap one to copy it:
What is the Unicode code for é?
é is U+00E9, LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE, added in Unicode 1.1 in 1993. In UTF-8 it is stored as the bytes C3 A9, and the table gives every escape a developer needs.
| Code point | U+00E9 |
|---|---|
| Name | LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE |
| Added in | Unicode 1.1 (1993) |
| UTF-8 bytes | C3 A9 |
| HTML | é é é |
| CSS | \00E9 |
| JavaScript | \u00E9 |
| Python | \u00e9 |
| URL | %C3%A9 |
If a page shows é instead of é, its UTF-8 bytes are being read as Windows-1252. Serve the page as UTF-8 (<meta charset="utf-8">) to fix it.
Which letters are related to e with accent?
These letter pages share an accent mark or a language with é è ê ë ē, the most shared languages first.
Whole alphabets with every letter in order, including é, ë, è, ê and ē:
- Czech alphabet
- Dutch alphabet
- French alphabet
- Hungarian alphabet
- Icelandic alphabet
- Italian alphabet
- Latvian alphabet
- Portuguese alphabet
- Slovak alphabet
- Vietnamese alphabet
Every letter with the same mark, on one page, for é, ê, è and ë: Accent aigu, Circumflex, Grave accent, Umlaut.
How to spell words written with é: café, cliché, fiancé, México, résumé.
Need a letter other than é?
Frequently asked questions about e with accent
What is the e with an accent called?
The é is an e with an acute accent, which French calls the accent aigu. The other e accents are è with a grave accent, ê with a circumflex, ë with a diaeresis (the French tréma) and ē with a macron, a short line over the letter.
How do you type an e with an accent on a keyboard?
On a Mac, the documented shortcut for é is Option+E, then E. On Windows, hold Alt and type the code for é from the Alt code table on the number pad. In Microsoft Word, press Ctrl and the apostrophe key together, then E.
How do you type a capital E with an accent (É)?
To type a capital E with accent, add Shift to the second key. On a Mac, press Option+E, then Shift+E; in Word, press Ctrl and the apostrophe key, then Shift+E. On iPhone or Android, turn on Shift first, then touch and hold E. On Windows, the capitals have Alt codes of their own in the Alt code table.
How do I type é on a laptop without a number pad?
Alt codes need a number pad, so on a Windows laptop without one press the Windows key and the period key together. Microsoft's emoji panel opens; choose Symbols and pick é from the accented letters. Copying é from this page works on any device.
What is the difference between é and è?
The slant tells you the sound. In French, Larousse describes the acute accent as marking the closed e, the sound of été, and the grave accent on e as marking the open e, the sound of père. Swapping them changes the pronunciation.
Does Spanish use e with an accent?
Spanish uses only one e accent: é, with the acute. The grave, circumflex and diaeresis are not part of the Spanish alphabet in the Unicode CLDR. Common Spanish words with é include qué, él, también and después.
Why does é turn into é on a web page or in a spreadsheet?
The text was saved as UTF-8 but opened as Windows-1252, so the bytes of é are shown as the two characters é. Reopen or import the file as UTF-8, or declare UTF-8 in the page's charset, and é comes back.