How to Type Accented Letters (á é í ó ú ñ ü)
Writing in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese or many other languages means typing letters with accents: é, ñ, ü, ç, å. Every one of them can be typed without switching your whole keyboard layout.
There are three good approaches depending on your device: Windows Alt codes, the elegant Mac "dead key" method, and long-press on phones. Pick the one that fits how you work.
Quick reference: every method
Every Alt code below is verified against the real Windows code pages — where none exists we say so, rather than list one that won’t work.
| Char | Name | Windows | Mac | HTML | Word (Alt+X) | Unicode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| é | Latin Small Letter E With Acute | Alt+0233 |
Option+E, E |
é |
00E9 + Alt+X |
U+00E9 |
| ñ | Latin Small Letter N With Tilde | Alt+0241 |
Option+N, N |
ñ |
00F1 + Alt+X |
U+00F1 |
| ü | Latin Small Letter U With Diaeresis | Alt+0252 |
Option+U, U |
ü |
00FC + Alt+X |
U+00FC |
| á | Latin Small Letter A With Acute | Alt+0225 |
Option+E, A |
á |
00E1 + Alt+X |
U+00E1 |
Mac: the dead-key method (easiest to remember)
On a Mac you press the accent first, then the letter. Hold Option and the accent key, release, then type the base letter:
Acute (é): Option + e, then the letter — Option+e then e = é. Grave (è): Option + ` then the letter. Circumflex (ê): Option + i then the letter. Umlaut/diaeresis (ü): Option + u then the letter. Tilde (ñ): Option + n then the letter. Cedilla (ç): Option + c directly.
Modern Macs also let you press and hold a letter key to pop up a menu of its accented forms — hold a and choose from à á â ä ã å.
Windows: Alt codes
Every common accented Latin letter has a real Windows-1252 Alt code (the Alt+0nnn method), because they all live in the 128–255 range. A few examples: é = Alt+0233, ñ = Alt+0241, ü = Alt+0252, á = Alt+0225, ç = Alt+0231. Use the table below for the exact code of each featured letter.
If you type accented text often on Windows, the built-in US-International keyboard layout turns the apostrophe and quote keys into dead keys, giving you the same "accent then letter" flow as a Mac.
Phones and the web
On iPhone and Android, press and hold the base letter on the on-screen keyboard — a row of accented options appears; slide to the one you want. In HTML, named entities like é (é) and ñ (ñ) work, as do numeric entities.
Handy tips
- For capital accented letters on Windows, the Alt code is a different number (É = Alt+0201) — they sit just below the lowercase ones in Windows-1252.
- The Mac press-and-hold menu shows a number under each option; you can press that number key instead of clicking.
- Switching your keyboard’s input language (rather than typing codes) is worth it if you write in another language daily.
Frequently asked questions
How do I type ñ on Windows?
Alt+0241 for lowercase ñ, Alt+0209 for capital Ñ. On Mac, Option+n then n.
How do I get accents without changing my keyboard language?
Use Alt codes on Windows or the Option-key dead keys on Mac — both leave your normal layout in place.
Do accented letters have real Alt codes?
Yes. Unlike many symbols, the common accented Latin letters all fall in the 0–255 range, so their Alt+0nnn codes genuinely work.
Related symbols
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