Accent Marks/Characters in Spanish
In Spanish there is an accent mark over some vowels to show where the word is stressed. There is a
letter that has a mark called a "tilde." This letter is pronounced like the "ny" of "canyon." There is an
upside-down question mark to begin a question and an upside-down exclamation mark to begin an
exclamation.
One way to type accent marks or characters in Spanish is to do the following:
Turn on the key labeled "num lock" located on the top right of the keyboard.
Hold down the "alt" key and type the following numbers using the number pad on the right of the
keyboard:
Using ALT Key
Number Combination Character
130 é
160 á
161 í
162 ó
163 ú
164 ñ
168 ¿
173 ¡
0193 Á
0201 É
0205 Í
0211 Ó
0218 Ú
Another way is to go to the top to "Insert." Find "Symbol" and click on it. Then look at the symbol chart
that appears, find your symbol and click "Insert."
A third way that will work only for the accent marks is to press down on Ctrl+ ' (apostrophe), let go and
then type your letter. Your letter should appear with the accent mark in place!
If you have a laptop
Hold down the Shift key, and while holding it down, hit your number lock key (NumLk). On my laptop,
the number lock key also says "ScrLk" and it is on the very top of my keyboard, two keys over from the
power button.
Now, when you need an accent mark, hold down the Alt button and type the following numbers using
your *number pad* --not the numbers which go along the top of your keyboard, but the numbers which
are on the letter keys. For example, the letter U key also has a number 4 on it and the letter L key also
has a number 3 on it. These are the numbered keys you want to use. Use the following numbers to get
your accented characters:
Key Combination Character
130 é
160 á
161 í
162 ó
163 ú
164 ñ
168 ¿
173 ¡
0193 Á
0201 É
0205 Í
0211 Ó
0218 Ú
If you have a Macintosh
To get accents on the Mac, hold down the Option key, and while holding it down, type the letter vowel;
then release those keys and type the letter that you want the accent to appear on:
Key Combination Character
Opt + e, then a á
Opt + e, then e é
Opt + e, then i í
Opt + e, then o ó
Opt + e, then u ú
Opt + u, then u ü
Opt + n, then n ñ
Opt + 1 ¡
Opt + shift + ? ¿
Opt + e, then A Á
Opt + e, then E É
Opt + e, then I Í
Opt + e, then O Ó
Opt + e, then U Ú
Your learning management system may not allow you to type symbols. Therefore, you may need to cut
and paste from Microsoft Word. Your words need to be spelled correctly, with the appropriate accent
mark or symbol.