All the French accents, the ligatures and the guillemets, without switching your computer to AZERTY.
French words to try
Tap a word to put it in the box above, or type it yourself with the keys shown (only the special letters need a shortcut).
| Word | Meaning | Keys |
|---|---|---|
| How are you / I'm fine | Alt+Shift+C | |
| Very well | Alt+E ×2 | |
| Boy | Alt+C | |
| Heart | Alt+O ×2 | |
| Merry Christmas | Alt+E ×4 |
French accent shortcuts
Each accented letter on this keyboard and the shortcut that types it from a US or UK keyboard. Hold Alt on Windows, Linux and ChromeOS, or Option on a Mac. Add Shift for the capital.
| Letter | Capital | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| é | É | Alt + E |
| è | È | Alt + E ×2 |
| ê | Ê | Alt + E ×3 |
| ë | Ë | Alt + E ×4 |
| à | À | Alt + A |
| â | Â | Alt + A ×2 |
| æ | Æ | Alt + A ×3 |
| ç | Ç | Alt + C |
| î | Î | Alt + I |
| ï | Ï | Alt + I ×2 |
| ô | Ô | Alt + O |
| œ | Œ | Alt + O ×2 |
| ù | Ù | Alt + U |
| û | Û | Alt + U ×2 |
| ü | Ü | Alt + U ×3 |
| ÿ | Ÿ | Alt + Y |
| « | « | Alt + < |
| » | » | Alt + > |
The French accents and when each one is used
French has five marks that sit on letters, plus two ligatures. Unlike Spanish, where the accent mostly marks stress, French accents mostly change the sound of a vowel or record a letter that has dropped out of the spelling over the centuries.
| Mark | Letters | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acute (accent aigu) | é | A closed "ay" sound | été, café |
| Grave (accent grave) | è à ù | An open è; on à and ù it separates homophones | très, à vs a, où vs ou |
| Circumflex (accent circonflexe) | â ê î ô û | Often marks a lost s | forêt (forest), hôpital |
| Diaeresis (tréma) | ë ï ü ÿ | Pronounce the vowel separately | Noël, naïf, maïs |
| Cedilla (cédille) | ç | A soft s sound before a, o, u | ça, garçon, reçu |
| Ligatures | œ æ | Two letters written as one | cœur, sœur, ex æquo |
Guillemets and French spacing
French quotation marks are guillemets, « and », and French typography puts a space inside them: « Bonjour ». French also puts a space before the two-part punctuation marks ; : ! and ?. Strictly this is a narrow non-breaking space, which keeps the mark from wrapping onto a new line alone. When you paste text from here into a word processor set to French, it will usually fix the spacing for you; in an email or chat a normal space is the accepted compromise.
On this keyboard « and » are the last two red keys. On a computer, Alt+< and Alt+> type them, which is Alt with Shift and the comma or full stop.
Why not just switch to AZERTY?
Keyboards sold in France use AZERTY: A and Q swap places, Z and W swap, M moves next to L, and the digits need Shift. It has keys for é, è, à, ç and ù, but still no direct key for œ, the capital É or the guillemets. Switching an English keyboard to AZERTY means relearning where half the letters are, which is why most learners outside France keep QWERTY and add accents another way. (France published a revised AZERTY standard in 2019 that adds the missing characters, but few keyboards use it.)
The shortcuts on this page cycle through every accent on a letter. Alt+E gives é; press it again for è, again for ê, again for ë, and a fifth time returns to é. The same works for a (à, â, æ), i (î, ï), o (ô, œ), u (ù, û, ü) and y (ÿ). Add Shift for the capital.
Typing French accents on your own device
- Mac: hold down a letter for a menu of its accents, or use Option shortcuts: Option+E then a vowel for the acute, Option+` for the grave, Option+I for the circumflex, Option+U for the diaeresis, Option+C for ç, and Option+Q for œ.
- Windows: the United States-International layout uses dead keys: ' then e for é, ` then e for è, ^ then e for ê, " then e for ë, and ' then c for ç. For œ, the Canadian Multilingual Standard layout is the most complete option.
- Phone: press and hold the letter. Gboard and the iPhone keyboard both show every French accent, and holding o shows œ.