OS X - Typing Accented Letters
Typing Accented Letters and other Foreign Characters
See below for instructions on how to type non-English characters while using the standard U.S. English keyboard layout on Mac OSX.
The following tables show sample characters, along with the keyboard shortcuts used to type them using the standard U.S. keyboard layout. The same content is also available as a PDF.
Accented Letters
The symbol "V" below means any vowel. To use the keyboard shortcuts, hold down Option, press the second key, and release both before typing the desired vowel. Hold down the Shift key when typing the vowel if a capital letter is needed.
Accent | Example | Keyboard Shortcut | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Acute |
ó Ó |
Option+E, V |
|
Circumflex |
ô Ô |
Option+I, V |
|
Grave |
ò Ò |
Option+`, V |
|
Tilde |
õ Õ |
Option+N, V |
Only with "n,N,o,O,a,A" |
Umlaut |
ö Ö |
Option+U, V |
Other Foreign Characters
To insert these characters, press hold down the Option key, and the Shift key if required, and then press the letter or symbol key indicated in the Keyboard Shortcut column. To produce an uppercase symbol, hold down the Shift key when typing the key combination.
Character | Name | Keyboard Shortcut |
---|---|---|
¡ |
Beginning exclamation mark |
Option+1 |
¿ |
Beginning question mark |
Shift+Option+? |
Ç,ç |
French C cedille |
Option+C |
Œ,œ |
OE ligature |
Option+Q |
ß |
German Sharp/Double S |
Option+S |
º, ª |
Masculine Ordinal Number (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese), |
Option+0 |
Ø,ø |
Nordic O slash |
Option+O |
Å,å |
Nordic A ring |
Option+A |
Æ,æ |
AE ligature |
Option+' |
« » |
Spanish/French quotation marks |
Option+\ |
Currency Symbols
To insert these characters, hold down the Option key, and the Shift key if required, and then press the other key.
Character | Name | Keyboard Shortcut |
---|---|---|
¢ |
Cent sign |
Option+4 |
£ |
British Pound |
Option+3 |
¥ |
Japanese Yen |
Option+Y |
€ |
Euro Sign. |
Shift+Option+2 |
ƒ |
Dutch Florin |
Option+F |