How to Type a Grave Accent on a Mac

The grave accent mark is seldom used in English. However, the French gave us accent-rich words like vis-à-vis, voilà, and pièce de resistance. In English, grave accent marks are used with the following uppercase and lowercase vowels: À, à, È, è, Ì, ì, Ò, ò, Ù, and ù. There are several ways to type a grave accent on a Mac keyboard.

Use a Keystroke Combination

Use a keystroke combination to type a grave accent on a Mac computer.

Use the Keyboard Accent Menu

Here’s how to use the keyboard accent menu to type a grave accent. If you want the letter to be uppercase, press the Shift key before typing the letter you want to accent.

Use the Emoji & Symbols Menu

Here’s how to use the Emoji & Symbols menu to type a grave accent on a Mac computer.

How to Type a Grave Accent in Windows

If you have a numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard, use it to produce grave accents with four-digit number codes on computers with Windows. The number codes for uppercase letters are as follows:

Alt + 0192 = ÀAlt + 0200 = È Alt + 0204 = Ì Alt + 0210 = Ò Alt + 0217 = Ù 

The number codes for lowercase letters are as follows:

Alt + 0224 = à Alt + 0232 = è Alt + 0236 = ì Alt + 0242 = ò Alt + 0249 = ù 

If you don’t have a numeric keypad, this method won’t work. However, you can copy and paste accented characters from the Character Map instead. In Windows 10, enter map in the search box on the taskbar and select Character Map from the list of search results.

Grave on iOS and Android Mobile Devices

Use the virtual keyboard on your iOS or Android mobile device to access special characters with accent marks, including the grave.

Grave Accent in HTML

To use a grave accent mark on a website, insert the mark in the HTML by typing & (ampersand symbol) followed by the letter (A, E, I, O, or U), the word grave, then a ; (semicolon) with no spaces between the characters.

Tips for Working With Grave Accents

In HTML, some characters with grave accent marks may appear smaller than the surrounding text. In this case, enlarge the font for only those characters as needed. In Windows, don’t use the numbers located at the top of the keyboard to insert characters with accents. Use the numeric keypad and be sure Num Lock is turned on. Some programs may have special keystrokes or menu options for creating diacriticals like the grave accent mark. See the application manual or help files if the general keystroke instructions presented here don’t work for typing grave accent marks in an app or program.

Other Diacritical Marks

Other diacritical marks are accessed in a manner similar to typing a grave accent. These characters are available through keyboard shortcuts:

The acute accent (á). The cedilla, which is attached to the bottom of a letter such as in the word façade. The circumflex accent (ˆ). The umlaut, which consists of two dots above a letter, such as in coöperate. The tilde (~) has its own key on most keyboards.