How to Put an Accent Over a Letter on Any Device

What are the three ways a keyboard puts an accent on a letter?

Every device in the table above uses one of three shapes. Knowing which one yours has is most of how to do accents on a keyboard.

Press and hold the letter. Keep the plain letter down until a menu of its accented forms opens. Then slide or click to the one you want. Apple's iPhone guide (opens in a new tab) uses é as its example: touch and hold the e key, then slide to the option. Gboard's help (opens in a new tab) puts it in four words: "touch and hold a key".

A Mac does it too. Apple's Mac guide (opens in a new tab) adds that no menu opens on a key with no accents to offer.

A mark key, then the letter. Press a key that stands for the mark and let go. Then press the letter, and the two arrive as one character. Apple calls these dead keys. On a Mac, Option+E waits for a vowel, and Option+N for an a, an n or an o.

Word does the same with Ctrl and a key that looks like the mark. A Chromebook does it once you switch to the US International keyboard: the apostrophe, then e, gives é (Google's list (opens in a new tab)).

A code or a search. On Windows you hold Alt and type a four-digit code on the number pad. Microsoft says (opens in a new tab) this works only on the numeric keypad, not on the number row. Word adds a second code: the letter's Unicode number, then Alt+X. Google Docs has only the search, under Insert, then Symbols, then Special characters (Docs help (opens in a new tab)).

How do you type é on a keyboard, whatever the device?

On a Mac, press Option+E, then E. On Windows, hold Alt and type 0233. On a Chromebook with the US International keyboard, press the apostrophe, then E. In Word, press Ctrl+', then E. On a phone there is no key to press, only the e to hold. The table above has the same steps, device by device.

How to type letters with accents other than é follows the same pattern. The mark key changes with the mark; the letter stays the same. On a Mac, Option+` before a vowel gives the grave, as in è. Option+U gives the umlaut, as in ü. Each device's own guide, linked at the end of this page, has every mark's key.

Which way should you pick on each device?

On a phone, press and hold is the only built-in way, so the choice is made for you. On a Mac, the dead keys suit regular typing in a language with accents. Press and hold needs nothing remembered, which suits an occasional letter.

On Windows, Alt codes need a number pad. On a laptop without one, use the emoji panel: the Windows key and the full stop, then Symbols. The United States-International layout is the other way to get accents on the keyboard for good.

To add accent marks in Word or Google Docs, use the app's own method for an unusual letter. The app reaches letters the system keys do not. For the common letters, the system method works inside the app too.

When is copying the letter quicker than typing it?

When no device documents a key for the letter. The list below shows which letters those are. No phone maker documents them, and on a computer they take a search by name or a typed code.

To put accents on letters like these once or twice, copying is the shorter path. Every letter in AccentPad's catalogue is a single key on the copy pad. A letter's own page, where AccentPad has one, shows the search word or the code for each device.