Italian Accent Letters: Copy and Paste à è é ì ò ù

Italian uses six main accented letters: à è é ì ò ù. Click any letter above to copy it. To type them, use Alt + 0224 for à on Windows, or Option + ` then a on a Mac.

Italian accents are simpler than French or Portuguese ones. They mostly appear on the last letter of a word, and almost all are grave accents.

When Italian uses an accent

Italian does not mark stress in most words. It writes an accent in two cases.

1. Stress on the final vowel

When a word of two or more syllables is stressed on its last vowel, that vowel takes an accent. Without it, a reader would stress the wrong syllable.

2. One-syllable words that need telling apart

Most one-syllable words have no accent. A small group takes one to separate it from an identical word with a different meaning.

Some one-syllable words with two vowels also need one: già, giù, può, più.

è vs é: open and closed e

Italian has two e sounds, and the accent tells you which one to use.

• è (grave): an open e, as in "bed". Examples: è, caffè, tè, cioè.
• é (acute): a closed e, closer to "day" without the glide. Examples: perché, poiché, affinché, né, sé, ventitré.

A useful rule: words ending in -ché take é. Words like caffè and tè, many borrowed from other languages, take è.

For o, standard Italian writes ò on final vowels, as in però and andò. The acute ó and í appear in some dictionaries and careful typesetting to show vowel quality, but everyday writing uses ò and ì. The circumflex î is an old-fashioned plural ending, seen in older texts as principî.

How to type Italian letters

The rare letters are í (Alt + 0237), ó (Alt + 0243) and î (Alt + 0238). Alt codes need the number pad with Num Lock on.

The ` key is the grave key, usually at the top left of the keyboard under Esc.

The capital È problem

The Italian keyboard layout has keys for à, è, é, ì, ò and ù, but no key for capital È. This matters because È (it is) often starts a sentence: "È vero" (it is true).

Many people type E' with an apostrophe instead. That is a workaround, not correct Italian. Use one of these methods:

• Windows: hold Alt and type 0200 on the number pad.
• Mac: press Option + `, then Shift + E, or hold E and pick È from the menu.
• Word: press Ctrl + `, then Shift + E. Word's AutoCorrect can also be set to replace E' with È.
• Phones: hold the E key and slide to È.
• Copy it: click È in the grid above.

For every form of e, see the e with accent page.

Other typing methods

If you write Italian often, the US International layout on Windows gives dead keys: ` then a gives à, and ' then e gives é. The Windows accent guide explains how to add it. Mac users can rely on press and hold, covered in the Mac accent guide.

The grave accent is shared with French and Portuguese. Our page on grave accent letters lists every letter that takes it.