How to Find Letters With Accents on Your Keyboard Using ALT Codes

Need to type é, ñ, ü, ç, å, or another letter with an accent? You do not need to copy the character from another document every time. Windows includes keyboard methods for typing many letters with accents, including ALT codes, while Microsoft Word also supports Unicode and special keyboard shortcuts.

This guide explains how to find accented letters on your keyboard, how Windows ALT codes work, and where to find the correct accented version of every letter from A to Z. For a complete copy-and-paste collection, you can also use
LetterAccents.com, which organizes accent letters by individual letter.

How Do ALT Codes for Letters With Accents Work?

On a Windows computer with a numeric keypad, many common accented characters can be entered by holding down the ALT key and entering a number on the numeric keypad.

For example:

• á – hold ALT and type 0225
• é – hold ALT and type 0233
• í – hold ALT and type 0237
• ó – hold ALT and type 0243
• ú – hold ALT and type 0250
• ñ – hold ALT and type 0241
• ü – hold ALT and type 0252
• ç – hold ALT and type 0231

Make sure Num Lock is switched on and use the numeric keypad rather than the number keys across the top of the keyboard. When you release ALT, the accented character should appear.

Common Letters With Accents and Their ALT Codes

Find Any Letter With an Accent From A to Z

There are far more accented characters than the familiar á, é, í, ó and ú. Unicode contains accented forms of most letters of the Latin alphabet. Some are common in languages such as French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Turkish and Vietnamese, while others are mainly used in transliteration, historical spelling or linguistic notation.

Use the A–Z directory below to find the character you need. Each guide includes the available characters and information about typing or copying them.

A With Accent

For á, à, â, ä, ã, å, ā and many other variations, see the complete
A with accent
guide, including A accent ALT codes and capital letters.

B With Accent

Letters such as ḃ, ḅ and ḇ are much less common, but you can find the available
accented B letters
and their character codes in one place.

C With Accent

If you are looking for ç, ć, ĉ, ċ or č, open the guide to
C with accent marks.
The cedilla in ç is especially common in French, Portuguese, Catalan and Turkish.

D With Accent

For ď, ḋ, ḍ and related characters, see the complete list of
D accent characters
and keyboard codes.

E With Accent

E is one of the most frequently accented letters. The
E accent ALT code
guide includes é, è, ê, ë, ē, ė, ę, ě and many more uppercase and lowercase variations.

F With Accent

F has relatively few accented forms, but you can find ḟ and Ḟ in the
F with accent
reference published on LetterAccents.com.

G With Accent

Characters including ğ, ĝ, ġ and ģ are covered in
LetterAccents.com G with accents,
including the Turkish soft G and other less common forms.

H With Accent

For ĥ, ḥ, ḣ and related characters, use this reference for
H with accent marks
and their keyboard codes.

I With Accent

The complete
I with accent
page includes ì, í, î, ï, ĩ, ī and additional forms, along with uppercase versions such as Ì, Í, Î and Ï.

J With Accent

J rarely takes a diacritic in everyday English, but forms such as ĵ and ǰ do exist. See the
accented J
guide for the full list.

K With Accent

For ķ, ǩ, ḱ, ḳ and ḵ, visit the
K with accent
keyboard and ALT-code reference.

L With Accent

The
L accent mark
guide covers forms such as ĺ, ļ and ľ as well as other special L characters used in European languages.

M With Accent

M has only a small number of accented forms. The
M with accents
page includes characters such as ḿ, ṁ and ṃ.

N With Accent

One of the best-known accented letters is ñ. You can find ñ, ń, ņ, ň and the other
N with accent
characters together with keyboard information.

O With Accent

O has a particularly large number of variations. The guide to
accented O letters
includes ó, ò, ô, õ, ö, ō, ő, ø and many additional characters.

P With Accent

For the less common ṕ and ṗ characters, see the full
P with accent
guide.

Q With Accent

Q is unusual because it has essentially no standard accented forms in ordinary Latin alphabets. The
Q with accent
page explains what exists and why accented Q is so rare.

R With Accent

Characters such as ř, ŕ and ŗ are used in several Central and Eastern European languages. See the
R accent characters
guide for the available variants and codes.

S With Accent

For š, ś, ş, ș and additional forms, use the complete
S with accent
reference. It also covers special S-related characters used in European languages.

T With Accent

The
accented T
page includes ť, ţ, ț, ṫ, ṭ and other T variations.

U With Accent

For ú, ù, û, ü, ũ, ū, ů, ű and many more, see the detailed
U with accent
and U umlaut reference.

V With Accent

V rarely appears with diacritics, but ṽ and ṿ are both Unicode characters. Find them on the
V with accent marks
page.

W With Accent

Welsh makes particularly interesting use of accented W. The
W accent letters
guide includes ŵ, ẃ, ẁ and ẅ.

X With Accent

Accented X is rare, but Unicode includes forms such as ẋ and ẍ. See
X with accent
for the available characters.

Y With Accent

For ý, ÿ, ŷ and other versions, the
Y with accents
guide provides lowercase and capital characters plus keyboard information.

Z With Accent

Finally, characters including ž, ź, ż and ẑ are collected in the
Z with accent
guide.

How to Type É and Other E Accents With ALT Codes

The letter E is a good example because several versions are used frequently in European languages.

• é – ALT + 0233
• è – ALT + 0232
• ê – ALT + 0234
• ë – ALT + 0235
• É – ALT + 0201
• È – ALT + 0200
• Ê – ALT + 0202
• Ë – ALT + 0203

If you regularly type French names, words such as café or résumé, or names containing accented characters, learning the most common ALT combinations can be faster than searching for the character each time.

ALT Codes Versus Unicode Alt+X in Microsoft Word

It is useful to distinguish traditional Windows ALT codes from Microsoft’s Alt+X Unicode method.

With an ALT code, you normally hold ALT while entering the decimal number on the numeric keypad. In Microsoft Word, you can instead type a Unicode hexadecimal value and then press Alt + X.

For example:

• Type 00E9, then press Alt + X → é
• Type 00F1, then press Alt + X → ñ
• Type 00FC, then press Alt + X → ü
• Type 010D, then press Alt + X → č
• Type 0159, then press Alt + X → ř

This can be particularly useful for less common letters that do not have a convenient traditional Windows ALT-code combination.

What If Your Keyboard Does Not Have a Number Pad?

Many laptops do not have a separate numeric keypad. In that situation, you have several alternatives:

• Use the Windows Character Map.
• Use the Windows symbol or character panel.
• Use Microsoft Word’s Alt+X Unicode method.
• Enable an international keyboard layout.
• Copy and paste the character from a letters-with-accents reference.

For occasional use, copying a character is often the fastest option. For frequent writing in Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Polish or another language, changing to an international or language-specific keyboard can be more efficient.

How to Type Accent Marks in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word also supports accent shortcuts that work differently from numerical ALT codes. You first press the accent combination and then the letter.

How to Type Letters With Accents on Mac

Mac computers use the Option key for many accents. For example, you can press Option + E, release the keys, and then press E to produce é.

On newer versions of macOS, another simple method is to press and hold the letter. A small character menu appears with common accented variations. Select the character you want from the menu.

How to Type Accented Letters on iPhone and Android

Typing accents on a phone is usually easier than memorizing codes. Press and hold the normal letter on your on-screen keyboard.

For example, holding e normally displays choices such as é, è, ê and ë. Holding n provides ñ, while holding u can display ú, ù, û and ü.

Accent Marks Are Not Limited to Vowels

English speakers often associate accents with A, E, I, O and U, but consonants can also carry diacritics. Examples include:

• ç – C with cedilla
• ñ – N with tilde
• š – S with caron
• ž – Z with caron
• ć – C with acute
• ř – R with caron
• ğ – G with breve
• ŵ – W with circumflex

If you want to browse many of these characters together rather than one letter at a time, the
letters with accents A, E, O, U and I guide
at ReadyScores also provides a large A–Z collection of accented characters, keyboard shortcuts and copy-and-paste options.

What About Cursive Letters?

Accent marks and handwriting are separate topics, but people learning letter forms may also need to know how the underlying A–Z characters are written by hand. LetterAccents.com has a separate
cursive alphabet
section covering uppercase and lowercase cursive letters.

This is useful if you are learning both keyboard characters and handwriting, since an accented character such as é or ñ begins with the same basic letter shape before the diacritic is added.

Should You Memorize ALT Codes?

You probably do not need to memorize hundreds of codes. Instead, learn the handful that you use regularly.

For someone writing Spanish, that might mean remembering á, é, í, ó, ú and ñ. A German speaker may use ä, ö, ü and ß most often, while somebody writing French may regularly need à, â, ç, é, è, ê, ë, î, ï, ô, ù, û and ü.

For rare characters, an A–Z accent directory is much easier than trying to remember every numerical code.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ALT code for é?

On Windows, one common method is to hold ALT, type 0233 on the numeric keypad, and then release ALT to produce é.

What is the ALT code for á?

Hold ALT and enter 0225 on the numeric keypad to type á.

What is the ALT code for ñ?

Hold ALT and type 0241 on the numeric keypad to create lowercase ñ.

What is the ALT code for ü?

The Windows ALT code for lowercase ü is commonly entered as ALT + 0252.

Can every accented letter be typed with a traditional ALT code?

Not every Unicode character has a convenient traditional Windows ALT-code sequence. For uncommon characters, Unicode input, Microsoft Word’s Alt+X feature, Character Map, an international keyboard, or copy and paste may be easier.

Where can I copy and paste letters with accents?

You can browse the complete A–Z collection at
LetterAccents.com
or use the individual letter guides above when you need a particular character.

Final Tip: Bookmark the Letters You Use Most

If you only occasionally need an accented character, there is little reason to memorize dozens of keyboard codes. Bookmark the individual page for the letter you use most often, copy the character when needed, or keep the most common ALT codes handy.

For the five most frequently searched vowel groups, start with
A with accent,
E with accent,
I with accent,
O with accent, and
U with accent.
From there, the A–Z directory above covers every other letter when you encounter a less familiar accent mark.