German Accent Letters: Copy and Paste ä ö ü ß

German uses four special letters: ä, ö, ü and ß, plus the capitals Ä, Ö, Ü and ẞ. Click any letter above to copy it. To type them, use Alt + 0228 for ä on Windows, or Option + U then a on a Mac.

That is the whole set. German does not put acute or grave accents on its own words, so once you can type these eight characters you can write any German text.

The German letters and their names

Umlauts change the word

ä, ö and ü are not decorated versions of a, o and u. They are different vowels, and dropping the dots can change the meaning. schon means "already", schön means "beautiful". zahlen means "to pay", zählen means "to count".

The same two dots appear in French and Spanish with a different job. Our page on umlaut letters explains the difference between an umlaut and a diaeresis.

Eszett (ß)

ß stands for a sharp s sound after a long vowel or a diphthong, as in Straße, Fuß and heißen. After a short vowel German writes ss instead: Fluss, dass, muss.

Switzerland and Liechtenstein do not use ß at all. Swiss German writing uses ss everywhere, so Strasse is the normal Swiss spelling.

Capital ẞ

For a long time ß had no capital form, and capitals were written SS. In 2017 the Council for German Orthography added the capital ẞ as an accepted option. Both STRASSE and STRAẞE are now correct. Most people still write SS.

The ae, oe, ue, ss substitution rule

When you cannot type an umlaut, German has an official fallback. Replace the dots with an e after the vowel, and replace ß with ss.

Never simply drop the dots. Muller and Mueller are read differently, and "schon" for "schön" is a different word. This rule matters for email addresses, web domains, passwords and airline bookings that only accept plain letters. To strip accents from text automatically, use our remove accents tool, then fix any umlauts by hand.

How to type German letters

Alt codes need the number pad with Num Lock on. The short codes also work: Alt + 132 (ä), 148 (ö), 129 (ü), 225 (ß), 142 (Ä), 153 (Ö) and 154 (Ü).

The capital ẞ has no Alt code. Copy it from the top of this page, open the Win + . (period) symbol panel on Windows, or press Control + Command + Space on a Mac and search for "sharp s".

Windows

Alt codes are the fastest option if you only need a few letters. If you write German often, add the German keyboard layout or switch to US International, where " then u gives ü and Right Alt + s gives ß. Our Windows accent guide walks through both.

Mac

Option + U is a dead key: press it, release, then type the vowel. You can also press and hold a, o, u or s to pick from a menu. See the Mac accent guide for the full list.

Microsoft Word

Ctrl + Shift + : (colon) adds the two dots to the next vowel. For capitals, press Shift with the vowel. More shortcuts are in the Word accent guide.

The German QWERTZ keyboard

Keyboards sold in Germany and Austria use the QWERTZ layout. Z and Y swap places compared with English keyboards. The ü key sits to the right of P, ö to the right of L and ä next to ö, so each umlaut is one key press. ß sits next to the 0 key.

If you switch your computer to the German layout without a German keyboard, the printed keys will not match. Many people keep the US layout and use the shortcuts above, or use US International, which keeps the familiar positions.

German quotation marks

German typesetting uses low and high quotation marks: „so“ with the opening mark at the bottom. They are included in the grid above for copying.

Crossword clue: German accent mark, 6 letters

The answer is UMLAUT. Confirm it with your crossing letters. For other puzzle answers, see accent mark crossword clues.