How to Type Spanish Accents
The 14 characters Spanish uses, each one to copy, and the keyboard sequence that types it without copying.
Spanish
14 14 with a Windows shortcut that worksHow to type Spanish accents on a keyboard
Of the 14 characters on this page, 14 can be typed on a Mac's default ABC layout. On Windows, 14 have a Word and Outlook shortcut and 14 have an Alt code that works anywhere, which is the route when the keyboard has a numeric keypad.
A dead key is pressed and released before the letter, so it looks like nothing happened until you type the vowel. One row here is one rule: learn the acute and every acute letter follows.
| Mark | Example | Mac | Word and Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| an acute accent | á | Option + E, then a | Ctrl + ', then a |
| a tilde | ñ | Option + N, then n | Ctrl + Shift + ~, then n |
| a diaeresis | ü | Option + U, then u | Ctrl + Shift + :, then u |
Mac sequences are read off the layouts this machine runs, with UCKeyTranslate. The Word column is Microsoft's own table for Word and Outlook, not a Windows-wide shortcut.
Spanish needs three marks and uses them sparingly. The acute marks the stressed syllable when it breaks the default rule, and it also separates pairs that are otherwise identical: si and sí, el and él. The tilde makes a separate letter, ñ, which sorts after n in its own right. The diaeresis appears only on u between g and e or i, in words like pingüino, to say the u is pronounced. The inverted question and exclamation marks, ¿ and ¡, open a sentence rather than mark a letter, and they live with the punctuation.
This group holds 14 characters. They run from U+00C1 to U+00FC, close enough together to share a neighbourhood but not a single contiguous run. They are drawn from Latin-1 Supplement (14) in the Unicode Standard, which is what decides how each one is encoded and how software sorts and compares it.
Spanish takes three of the marks on this site and shares two of them with Portuguese, the closest set to it here. The one it leans on that fewest of its neighbours do is the a tilde.
All 14 come from Latin-1 Supplement: the accented letters and common signs Western European languages needed. A block is an address rather than a category, and this group is drawn from that block alone.
Every one of them has a Windows Alt code that works on any keyboard with a numeric keypad.
Of the 14, 7 have a Mac shortcut of their own. Everything else in this drawer is reached by copying it or by its codepoint, which works in every application on every system.
Every character below copies with one click. Each one also has a guide page with its Windows, Mac and HTML route written out.
Other languages
French (32)
32 characters, and the a diaeresis as well.
Portuguese (24)
24 characters, and the a tilde as well.
Czech (30)
30 characters, and the an acute accent as well.
Polish (18)
18 characters, and the an acute accent as well.
Italian (12)
12 characters, and the an acute accent as well.