Three ways in, pick your platform
Windows: Alt codes
Every letter in the table has a proper Alt+0nnn code — they all live in Windows-1252. The layout is systematic once you see it: the lowercase letters run from Alt+0224 (à) to Alt+0255 (ÿ), and each capital sits exactly 32 below its lowercase — é is Alt+0233, É is Alt+0201.
Mac: dead keys
Macs use two-step dead keys: press the accent combo, release, then type the letter. Five combos cover almost everything:
- Option+e then a letter → acute: é á í ó ú
- Option+` then a letter → grave: è à ù
- Option+u then a letter → umlaut/diaeresis: ü ö ä ë
- Option+i then a letter → circumflex: ê â î ô
- Option+n then a letter → tilde: ñ ã õ
The oddballs are single-chord: Option+c → ç, Option+a → å, Option+o → ø, Option+s → ß, Option+' → æ. Or just hold the letter key down — modern macOS pops up an accent picker.
The lazy-typist upgrade: US-International
If you type accented text daily, stop memorizing numbers. Windows' free United States-International keyboard layout turns ', `, ", ~, and ^ into dead keys: type ' then e and get é. Add it under Settings → Time & Language → Language → keyboard options.
In HTML
The named entities follow a pattern you can guess: letter + accent name.
é é, è è, ñ ñ,
ü ü (uml for umlaut), ç ç. Capitalize the
letter for capitals: É É.
Symbol data last reviewed: July 9, 2026.