This Online Accent Marks Keyboard is an online tool
that allows anyone to create, make or put accent marks above or below any
letter or character in just three steps.
We all know that our keyboardshavea standard set of
letters, numbers, and symbols on them. To type thesecharacters, we usually
don’t need to press more than a few keys at once. There are times, however,
when we need to type special letters, such as those with accent marks below or
above them.
There are several ways to type these special letters
on the keyboard, however, with some level of difficulty. And if you
frequently type these special characters, you may find it time-consuming to try
to find ways to get those symbols with your keyboard.
That’s why we created this free online Accent Marks
Keyboard for people like you to use, as it enables anyone irrespective of their
technical knowledge to type and put accents on any letter or character.
Thus,
to type letters with accent marks (below or above them), use this free online
keyboard tool. You can do so following the steps below:
1.
Type the letter to be
accented inside the textbox.
2.
Click on the accent you want
to add above or below the letter.
3.
Copy your letters with accent
marks by clicking the Copy button.
Now
that you’ve gotten the tool to type any letter with any accent mark, we will
like to use this opportunity to educate you more about accent marks.
Most beginner French classes introduce you to
Acute (é) and Grave (à/è/ì/ò/ù) aka L'AccentAigu and L'Accent Grave. Acute and
Grave are two of the three accent marks found in the French language. It's that
tiny punctuation mark located at the top of the vowel.
French isn't the only language that carries
accent marks. The English language also uses accent marks (like café). However,
English uses accent marks to adapt Latin to its phonemes. More on that later.
You can find accent marks in Spanish, Polish,
Norwegian, Welsh, Tibetan, Scottish Gaelic, etc. Some accent marks are common
and you may
have come across them.
Here's everything you need to know about accent
marks plus some other methods you can use to type these accented characters on
the keyboard without using this online tool.
The official term for accent marks is Diacritic(s). Calling them accent
is a
loose term, according to an article
published by
the University of Sussex.
Accent marks are the different little dots and
squiggles which, in many languages, are written below, above or on top of
certain letters of the alphabet to signify something about their pronunciation.
Another definition of diacritics: Diacritics
are marks placed over, under, or through letters or combinations of letters
that indicate differences in pronunciation and meaning between the marked
letter and its unmarked counterpart.
Common
diacritics
are the umlaut
(for instance, ü), the acute (for instance, ó), the grave (for instance, à),
and the macron (for instance, ō).
You can also come across double diacritics.
They are two diacritics modifying a single letter. Furthermore, you can find
special characters in the diacritics realm.
Special characters occupy a place of their own
rather than modifying a letter. Common special characters include the Polish l
( ł ) and the alif ( ’ ).
Here’s a list of common diacritics worldwide:
1.
Acute (
´ )
2.
Alif ( ’ )
3.
Angstrom or Circle above letter (Å)
4.
Apostrophe
( ’ )
5.
Ayn
6.
Breve (
Ă )
7.
Cedilla ( ¸ )
8.
The
circle below letter ( ￮ )
9.
Circumflex ( ^ )
10.
The dot above the letter or Superior dot ( . )
11.
Dot below letter ( . )
12.
Double acute ( ″ )
13.
Grave ( ` )
14.
Hacek ( ៴ )
15.
Left hook
16.
Ligature
17.
Macron (¯ )
18.
Miagkiznak
19.
Polish l ( ł )
20.
Slash o ( ø )
21.
Tilde ( ~ )
22.
Turkish i ( ɪ )
23.
Tverdyiznak
24.
Umlaut or diaeresis ( ¨ )
Most accent marks do not appear on the English
standard keyboard nor are they part of the section of the special character in
some software. You may also notice that some of the common accent marks have
names in different languages. Some diacritics or accent marks are specific to
its language. However, you can find some of the common diacritics in most word
processors today.
In 1885, the royal library of the ancient Assyrian
capital, Nineveh, was excavated. In it, they found the earliest written
documents in Sumerian. Here’s a small example of ancient Sumerian text:
usaŋanuusaŋanu
usaŋanu ki
dumuŋaše
usakulu ki
dumuŋaše
igibadbadani u
kunib
igigunanišuzuŋarbi
u eme za malilikani
za mallilil u nagule…
You can see some diacritics present in the
text. During this time, political factors affected the Sumerian people, and the
language was forgotten but not quite. It lived on, however, its descendants
merged with their oppressors creating another language altogether. The language
was similar but not quite the same.
Regardless, during this time, cultures would
interact either due to wars, economics, etc. The Greeks interacted with many
people from different cultures. One of the groups they interacted with were the
oppressors of the Sumerian people.
Thanks to trade, wars, economic factors, etc.
different cultures interacted and brought about changes in the different
writing systems. One such change or evolution was the introduction of
diacritics or accent marks to the Greek writing system.
The term diacritic comes from Ancient Greek.
According to ancient forms of writing, diacritics truly came into fruition with
the Greeks. Even today, our languages still carry the impact of the Greek writing system.
We still use the Greek
alphabet in mathematical equations.
Moving on from that, Diacritics were part of
the advancement of early forms of their writing system. After the death of
Alexander the Great, scholars introduced diacritics and breathinginto the
writing system.
These are part of the earliest known proofs of
diacritics in writing systems. During that time, there were several types of
writing systems. We can assume that the Greeks included diacritics/ accent
mark s and breathing during the 2nd or 3rd century BCE.
Greek scholar, Aristophanes of Byzantium, is
credited with the
invention of the accent marks system used in Greek to designate pronunciation,
as the tonal, pitched system. The accents were designed to assist in the
pronunciation of Greek in older literary works.
Over time, the Romans conquered the Greeks,
however, Greek literature remained at the forefront of Roman literature,
culture, etc. So you’ll find old inscriptions from 1 century AD containing
accent marks.
Here’s a Roman inscription
from 205AD:
Antonino Pio Felici
Aug(usto) et
P(ublio) Septimio Getae no-
⟦ḅịḷị[ssimo]⟧ ⟦[ Caesari]⟧ ⟦[
d(ominis)]⟧
n(ostris) imp(eratore)
Antonino II eṭ
GẹṭạCaesare co(n)s(ulibus)
centuriam
sub
cura G(ai) Valeri Pudentis
amplissimi
co(n)sulariscoh(ors)
In the inscription, you will notice the small
dots underneath some letters. The brackets are for translation purposes. But
you can see the influence the introduction of accent marks to the Greek writing
system had on the Roman writing system.
Here’s another Roman inscription
that shows
other accent marks/diacritics:
ενία Μαρτιά-
λη(ι) τῶ(ι) ἀνδρί
You can see the acute accent mark or in this
case, the apex accent. The apex accent would evolve to what we know today as
the acute accent.
Accent marks also come into play in Arabic.
When they showed up in the Arabic writing system is unclear, however, Arabs
interacted with numerous cultures worldwide due to massive trade. Which can be
one of the means through which accent marks landed in the Arabic language.
Languages evolved with time, and so did accent
marks. This history, albeit short, is just an assumptive history of accent
marks and their beginnings. Its unclear when they came into writing systems,
but the earliest known accent marks presumably started with the Sumerians.
It then trickled down to the Greeks and Romans.
Considering the massive effect these cultures had on modern linguistics, it’s
only natural that we still use accent marks.
Most linguistic characters have their own
rules. Its like a period. You can only place it at the end of a sentence.
Accent marks have their own rules and these rules differ throughout their
respective languages. We’ll take a look at some of the accent mark rules in
English, French, and Spanish to give you an understanding of the different
rules for different accent marks and how the language impacts them.
Diacritics or accent marks aren’t an English staple. However,
there are three main situations in which they occur.
1.
Foreign Words Integrated Into
English
English includes many foreign words. For instance, the word schadenfreude was an 18th
century
derivation from the German language. The word has no direct translation.
Most derived words
tend not to have a direct translation from English. It might not be all of
them, however, some of these derived words have accent marks that really make
them stand out in the dictionary.
Here’s examples of derived words in the Eglish dictionary
with accent marks: café, naive, (originally the i has two dots at the top), cortège.
With time, these words lost the accent marks, but some dictionaries keep the
original with the accent marks.
2.
The Diaeresis (¨)
If you check the list of common accent marks/diacritics,
you’ll come across the diaeresis. They are two dots at the top of a vowel.
Occasionally in the English dictionary, you’ll find it in some words. Diaeresis
in words is commonly old fashioned, for example, did you know that the word
cooperate used to be written as coöperate. Notice the diaeresis at the top of
the second o?
You can also find diaeresis in names such as Zoë and Brontë. Most linguists will recommend
that you do not use diaeresis. But rather the evolved form of the word such as
cooperate. Another word with diaeresis is aërate which evolved to aerate.
Please note that people with diaeresis in their names might
choose to keep them and their pronunciation. It would be polite to take that
into account when writing or pronouncing their names.
3.
The Grave Accent Mark (`)
The grave accent mark is one of the most common accent marks
in French and English. French-derived words tend to keep the accent marks. One
common word that uses the grave accent mark is café. You will notice that the
French rule for using the grave accent mark is similar to the English rule.
You can only use the grave accent mark on the ‘e’ vowel at
the end of a word to show that the vowel is a separate syllable. Without the
grave accent mark, you can read the ‘e’ in cafe as a single syllable. However,
the ‘e’ café is a separate syllable.
As shared earlier, accent marks have rules. Different
languages have different rules for accent marks. You will also notice that some
languages share rules for accent marks as seen in the case of the grave accent
mark and the acute accent mark. Let’s take a look at two French accent marks
and their rules.
1.
L’accentAigu Or The Acute Accent Mark
The acute accent is the most common and used French accent
mark. You’ll find it in words like aimé (to love), regardé (to watch), éléphant
(elephant), etc. The main rule for this accent mark is that you can only use it
the vowel ‘e’. The acute accent mark turns the ‘é’ into a separate syllable,
similar to the grave accent.
2.
L’accent grave Or The Grave Accent Mark
Next up is the grave accent mark. The French use it with ‘a’,
‘e’, or ‘u’, however, you’ll find most words with the grave accent with e.
Regardless, there are some words that have the ‘a’ or ‘u’ with the grave
accent. Here are some words that use the grave accent: frère (father) , après (after),
etc.
Lastly, we have Spanish. Spanish has two common accent marks,
the tilde (ñ) and umlaut (ü) which is similar to the diaeresis but in Spanish,
you refer to it as an umlaut. What are the rules?
1.
Tilde (ñ)
The purpose of the tilde is to distinguish ‘n’ from ‘ñ. The
‘ñ’ has a different pronunciation from the n. Here are some words with the ñ:
año (year), mañana (tomorrow), etc.
2.
Umlaut (ü)
An umlaut is the Spanish verision of a diaeresis. An umlaut
is placed on a ‘u’ after the letter ‘g’. Here are some words that use the
umlaut: pingüino (penguin), güe (wow), etc.
Different accent marks or diacritics have different rules.
Some accent marks in different languages share rules because of derivations. To
properly understand how to use accent marks, it is imperative that you study
its specific languages.
English uses very few words with accent marks, and some words
evolved to remove the need for accent marks, because they held no tonal or
pronunciation relevance unlike in their original language.
As shared earlier, Arabic includes accent marks. Arabic
diacritics are known as i‘jām. The Arabic writing system does not consider them
as accent marks but as part of the letter. Regardless, to get a better
understanding of Arabic diacritics, you will have to study the language.
Understanding accent marks and their rules is one thing, but
how do you apply them on modern tools like a laptop or PC? There are two ways
to accomplish this feat.
1.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Microsoft does an amazing job of educating its users on how
they can apply accent marks to text. Please note, that this method only applies
to MS Word. We tried it in Google Chrome, it did not work. That means you cannot
use keyboard shortcuts on Google Docs. However, there is a way for you to add
these accent marks to Google Docs. More on that later.
If you want to add the grave accent to text, here’s the
keyboard shortcut:
CTRL + (THE GRAVE ACCENT) +
THE LETTER
Where’s the grave accent key on the keyboard?
The grave accent is right below the ESC
button on your top left. The same key( the grave accent key) can also give you
the Spanish
tilde accent mark. Here’s how you do it:
CTRL + SHIFT +
TILDE + THE LETTER
What about the acute accent? You can
find the grave accent on the keyboard but you can’t find the acute accent.
Here’s the keyboard shortcut:
CTRL + APOSTROPHE + THE
LETTER
Here’s how you can add the umlaut or the diaeresis
to your MS Word document:
CTRL + SHIFT + COLON + THE LETTER
Disclaimer: Remember not to
put the plus sign when you’re using these keyboard shortcuts.The plus sign in
the shortcuts is just a means to show the process of using the keyboard
shortcuts.
Microsoft offers a few of these keyboard shortcuts to use
accent marks. They do not offer shortcuts to the majority of common accent
marks.
Here’s a keyboard shortcut to the
Angstrom
or Circle above letter:
CTRL + SHIFT + @ + a or A
Microsoft offer around ten of the common accent
marks/diacritics. There is another method to access the accent marks if the
keyboard shortcuts are too much for you:
2.
The Touch Keyboard
The next solution is to use the touch keyboard. Here’s how
you can access the touch keyboard on your laptop.
I.
Right Click on your
Task
Bar
II.
Scroll to the Show
Touch Keyboard Button option
III.
On your bottom right you’ll see a keyboard icon.
IV.
Click the keyboard icon and the touch keyboard will pop up on
your screen.
The touch keyboard works similar to a phone smart keyboard.
When you long press the letters, you should see the letters with the accent
marks. This method is long and tedious, but it is the simplest and fastest way
to get your writing across.
This method also applies in Google Chrome, Mozilla FireFox,
and Microsoft Edge. You can use it to search up words that come with the accent
marks.
You can also ‘turn off’ the touch keyboard with the same
method you used to ‘turn it on’. However, it shouldn’t pose a problem. You can
still use your regular keyboard or an external keyboard.
3.
Adding A Keyboard
Windows offers the option of adding a keyboard to your list
of keyboards. So you can have your English keyboard and keyboards in other
languages. You can switch among these keyboards to get the desired accent mark.
This method is long, but you will have a wider variety of accent marks.
According to Microsoft, here’s how you can add a keyboard:
I.
Go to the Start button
II.
Select Settings