How to Type Accent Letters on Mac (MacBook and iMac)

To type accent letters on a Mac, press and hold a letter key, then press the number under the accented version you want. For faster typing, use an Option shortcut: press Option + E, release, then type e to get é.

Both methods work in almost every Mac app with no setup. The sections below cover all four built-in methods, from quickest to most powerful.

Method 1: Press and hold

1. Press and hold a letter key, such as e.
2. A small menu of accented versions appears above the cursor.
3. Press the number shown under the letter you want, or click it.

Press and hold works for the vowels and for letters such as c, n, s and z. Holding a letter that has no accented versions does nothing. Hold Shift + E to get capital versions.

If press and hold does not work

If the letter repeats (eeeee) instead of showing a menu, press and hold has been turned off. Open Terminal and run this command:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

Then quit and reopen the app you are typing in, or log out and back in. Some apps, such as certain code editors, games and remote desktop tools, handle keys their own way and never show the menu. Use the Option keys there instead.

Method 2: Option key shortcuts (dead keys)

Option shortcuts are faster than press and hold once you know them. Press the Option shortcut, let go, then type the letter. The accent appears highlighted until you type the letter.

To get a capital, press Shift with the letter, not with Option. Option + E, then Shift + E gives É. Option + N, then Shift + N gives Ñ.

Some letters need only one key combination:

These shortcuts are for the standard U.S. and ABC layouts. If the dead key types the mark on its own (for example ´ followed by a plain e), you pressed a key the accent cannot sit on. Type the letter straight after the Option shortcut without anything in between.

There is no Option shortcut for ý. Use the Character Viewer or copy it from our accent letters tool.

Method 3: Character Viewer

The Character Viewer gives you every character on the system, including letters with rare marks.

1. Press Control + Command + Space. On newer Macs, pressing the Globe (fn) key + E also opens it.
2. If you see only emoji, click the expand button in the corner to open the full window.
3. Type a name in the search box, such as "e acute" or "c cedilla".
4. Double-click the letter to insert it.

Letters you use land in the Frequently Used list, so the second time is quicker.

Method 4: ABC Extended input source

The standard Option keys cover Western European accents only. For macrons (ā ē ī ō ū), carons (č š ž), and other marks, add the ABC Extended input source.

1. Open System Settings, then Keyboard.
2. In the text input section, edit your input sources and click the + button.
3. Search for ABC Extended, add it, and switch to it from the input menu in the menu bar.

ABC Extended adds new dead keys. Option + A then a gives ā, and Option + V then s gives š. It also has dead keys for marks such as the breve, ogonek and double acute.

To see where every dead key sits, open the Keyboard Viewer from the input menu and hold Option: dead keys are highlighted. Some standard Option shortcuts change in ABC Extended, so switch back to ABC or U.S. when you need them.

Language uses for these marks are in our guides to macron letters and caron letters.

Which method to use

Microsoft Word for Mac

Word for Mac does not use the Ctrl shortcuts from Word for Windows. The Option shortcuts and press and hold on this page work inside Word for Mac, Pages, Google Docs and every browser. For Word's own Insert Symbol menu, see how to put accent marks on letters in Word.

Capital accented letters

Every method above types capitals. With press and hold, hold Shift and the letter. With Option shortcuts, add Shift on the second key only. Whether capitals should keep their accents in Spanish and French is covered in capital letters with accent marks.

For the same shortcuts side by side with Windows and Word, see the accent letters keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet. For iPhone, Chromebook and other devices, start at how to get an accent over a letter.