Spanish keyboard

Spanish 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).

Spanish 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.

The letters Spanish adds to the English alphabet

Spanish uses the same 26 letters as English plus ñ, which the Real Academia Española counts as a separate letter of the alphabet, sorted after n. Everything else on this keyboard is an accent mark on an ordinary letter or one of the two inverted punctuation marks that open a question or an exclamation.

The acute accent (tilde) goes on the five vowels: á, é, í, ó, ú. It marks the stressed syllable when the normal stress rules would put it somewhere else, so camión is stressed on the last syllable even though it ends in n. It also tells apart words that are spelled the same: si (if) and sí (yes), el (the) and él (he), tu (your) and tú (you), mas (but) and más (more). Leaving it off is not a style choice; it changes the word.

The diaeresis ü appears only after g, in güe and güi, to show that the u is pronounced: pingüino, vergüenza, lingüística. Without it the u would be silent, as in guerra.

Why ¿ and ¡ come first

Spanish marks the start of a question with ¿ and the start of an exclamation with ¡, and closes them with the ordinary ? and !. Because Spanish word order often does not change in a question, the opening mark is what tells a reader to use a questioning tone from the first word: ¿Vienes mañana? The opening mark goes where the question starts, which is not always the start of the sentence: Si llueve, ¿vienes igual?

On this keyboard ¿ and ¡ are the last two red keys, and on a computer Alt+? and Alt+! type them (that is Alt with Shift+/ and Shift+1).

Typing Spanish accents without this page

When you type Spanish every day, it is worth setting up your own device once. These are the built-in ways; none needs extra software.

• Windows: add the "United States-International" keyboard in Settings, Time and language, Language and region. Then an apostrophe followed by a vowel gives the acute accent (' then e gives é), and Right Alt+N gives ñ. To type a plain apostrophe, press it and then Space.
• Mac: no setup. Option+E then a vowel gives the acute accent, Option+N then n gives ñ, Option+U then u gives ü, Option+Shift+? gives ¿ and Option+1 gives ¡. You can also hold a letter down and pick from the accent menu.
• iPhone and Android: press and hold the letter. Holding e shows é, holding n shows ñ, and holding ? or ! shows the inverted marks. Adding Spanish as a keyboard language also turns on Spanish autocorrect.
• Chromebook: add the "US International" input method, which works like the Windows one.

Spanish keyboard layout vs. this one

A keyboard bought in Spain uses the Spanish ISO layout: ñ has its own key where English keyboards have the semicolon, the accent is a dead key to the right of p, and ¡ and ¿ sit near the top right. Latin American keyboards differ again. Switching your computer to either layout moves several symbols you already know how to find, which is why many learners and bilingual writers prefer to keep their English layout and add the accents with shortcuts, as this page does.

Capitals take the same accents: Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, Ü and Ñ. The RAE is explicit that capital letters keep their accent, so ÁFRICA and Ángel are the correct forms. Tap Shift once on this keyboard and the red keys switch to capitals for the next letter.