How to type accents on Windows, Mac, and mobile

1. The Press-and-Hold method (Mac, Mobile & Windows)

The simplest way to type accented letters on modern operating systems is the press-and-hold technique. This feature originated on smartphones and has been standard on macOS and Windows PowerToys for years.

On a Mac, press and hold any vowel (or letters like c or n) on your keyboard. After a brief pause, a numbered popup menu appears above your cursor showing every accented variation. Tap the corresponding number on your keyboard, or click the desired glyph with your mouse. For example, holding e presents options for è, é, ê, ë, ē, ė, and ę.

On iPhone and Android touchscreens, press and hold the letter key with your thumb. A bubble expands showing available diacritics. Slide your finger to the accent you want and lift your finger to insert it.

On Windows 10 and 11, you can achieve the exact same behavior by enabling Quick Accent in Microsoft’s free PowerToys utility. Once turned on, hold a letter and tap Space or an arrow key to cycle through accent marks smoothly.

2. Mac Option key shortcuts

For touch typists on macOS, dead keys via the Option layer are faster than press-and-hold because they do not interrupt your typing rhythm:

To capitalize the letter, hold Shift when pressing the final vowel. For complete macOS mapping, see our guide on Mac Option key shortcuts.

3. Windows US-International keyboard

The standard US keyboard layout on Windows cannot type accents directly without clunky codes. The permanent solution is switching to the US-International keyboard layout:

1. Open Settings > Time & language > Language & region.
2. Click the three dots next to your language and choose Language options.
3. Under Keyboards, click Add a keyboard and select United States-International.
4. Switch between layouts anytime by pressing Win + Space.

US-International turns standard punctuation keys (', ", `, ~, ^) into dead keys. Typing ' then e produces é. Typing " then u outputs ü. Typing ~ then n gives ñ. To type the punctuation mark itself, tap the key followed by the spacebar. Read our complete guide to the US-International keyboard.

4. Windows numeric Alt codes for accents

If you only need an accent occasionally on a desktop PC with a numeric keypad, memorize the common Windows-1252 alt codes:

Always include the leading zero so Windows pulls from the Windows-1252 table. Explore our comprehensive alt codes for accents reference.

5. Keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word includes built-in two-key combinations that work without switching your system layout:

• Acute: Ctrl + ' (single quote), then the vowel (e.g. é).
• Grave: Ctrl + ` (backtick), then the vowel (e.g. à).
• Umlaut: Ctrl + Shift + ; (colon), then the vowel (e.g. ü).
• Circumflex: Ctrl + Shift + 6 (caret), then the vowel (e.g. ô).
• Tilde: Ctrl + Shift + ` (tilde), then a, o, or n (e.g. ñ).
• Cedilla: Ctrl + , (comma), then c (ç).

You can also check our dedicated pages for each accented character, such as e with accent, a with accent, and n with accent.