U.S. International Keyboard

Languages, Literatures, & Cultures

Typing Accented Letters and other Foreign Characters

See the tables below for instructions on how to type non-English characters while using the U.S. International keyboard layout on Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7, or download the PDF.

The following tables show sample characters, along with the keyboard shortcuts used to type them with the U.S. International keyboard layout. Note that RightAlt refers to the Alt key on the right-hand side of the keyboard.



Accented Letters

The keyboard shortcuts listed below will work with any vowel (referred to below as "V"), with some exceptions listed in the notes column. To use the keyboard shortcuts, enter the key or key combination listed before the comma, and then press the final key. Hold down the Shift key when typing the final key if a capital letter is needed.

Note: When you press the apostrophe ( ' ) key, quotation mark ( " ) key, accent grave ( ` ) key, tilde ( ~ ) key, or accent circumflex, or caret key, ( ^ ), nothing is displayed on the screen until you press a second key. If you press a letter that can take an accent mark, the letter appears with an accent. If you press the space bar, the symbol (apostrophe, quotation mark, accent grave, tilde, accent circumflex or caret) will appear by itself.


 
AccentExampleKeyboard ShortcutNotes
 

Acute

ó Ó

', V

' = apostrophe key

Circumflex

ô Ô

Shift+^, V

 

Grave

ò Ò

`, V

 

Tilde

ñ Ñ

Shift+~, V

Only with n,N,o,O,a,A

Umlaut

ö Ö

", V

" = quote key

 

Other Foreign Characters


To produce an uppercase symbol, hold down the Shift key when typing the final character in the key combination.


 
CharacterNameKeyboard Shortcut
 

¡

Beginning exclamation mark

RightAlt+1

¿

Beginning question mark

RightAlt+?

Ç,ç

French C cedille

RightAlt+< or '+C,
where ' = apostrophe key

Œ,œ

French oe liagature

Alt-0140 & Alt-0156, or Ctrl+Shift+&,o in MS Word

ß

German Sharp/Double S

RightAlt+S

Ø,ø

O slash

RightAlt+L

Å,å

A with ring/Angstrom Sign

RightAlt+W

Æ,æ

AE ligature

RightAlt+Z

Þ,þ

Icelandic/Old English Thorn 

RightAlt+T

Ð,ð

Icelandic/Old English eth

RightAlt+D

« »

Spanish style quote mark

RightAlt+[, RightAlt+]

 

Currency Symbols


 
CharacterNameKeyboard Shortcut
 

¢

Cent sign

Shift+RightAlt+C

£

British Pound

Shift+RightAlt+4

¥

Japanese Yen.
- = minus key

RightAlt+-

€

Euro Sign.

RightAlt+5

¤

Generic Currency

RightAlt+4