How to Type Accents in Windows 11 (2024)

Typing in a single language, say, for example, English, is wonderful if you have an English keyboard on your device. It’s not a task at all. But, what if you need to type out a word different from English? Words, sentences, or even entire paragraphs in a language not very distinct from English? A language that has the English alphabet but is also not necessarily pronounced in English? These languages look a lot like English, but they don’t work anywhere close to it. They have their own set of grammatical rules.

So, down to the basic question. What exactly are accents, and how do they differentiate a language? Every language has its own way of pronunciation. Some languages pronounce words as they are, while other languages pronounce them with a different accent. These accents are linguistically identified with marks, often placed on top of an alphabet or letter, thus, modifying the way that alphabet is pronounced or iterated.

Copy-pasting words or alphabets with accents can do only so much and authenticity isn’t one of them. Instead, you can type out your own accents. Here are four ways you can insert accents on any digital platform.

Typing Accents Using the Touch Keyboard on Windows 11

Right-click the taskbar and click on the ‘Taskbar Settings’ option that pops up.

Scroll down a little on the ‘Taskbar’ screen to find the ‘Touch Keyboard’ option below ‘Taskbar corner icons’. Click the toggle bar of this option and set it to ‘ON’.

Click the ‘Touch Keyboard’ icon that’s now visible on the bottom right corner of the taskbar. This will open the touch keyboard.

You can change the size of the keyboard by clicking on the ‘gear’ icon on the top left corner of the touch keyboard.

Select ‘Keyboard layout’ from the gear icon drop-down menu and choose ‘Default’ or any option of your choice from the next drop-down.

You will now view the on-screen keyboard in the layout of your choice.

Right-click and hold the letter, the accent for which you wish to add on text. Scroll to the chosen alphabet and click on it.

The accented alphabet appears on your screen. To close the touch keyboard, hit any key on the computer’s keyboard.

How to Add a New Keyboard on Windows 11

You can also change the language of the touch keyboard to directly find the accents for a particular language. Here’s how you add a keyboard for a different language, distinct from the default language keyboard.

Open ‘Settings’ by right-clicking the Start button in the taskbar. Click ‘Settings’ from the pop-up menu.

Click on ‘Time & language’ from the left list of options on the settings page. Then select ‘Language & region’ from the menu on the ‘Time and Language’ screen.

Next, hit the ‘Add a language’ button next to the ‘Preferred languages’ option on the ‘Language & region’ page.

In the ‘Choose a language to install’ dialog box, search for the language you wish to add, either by scrolling through the list or by specifying the name of the language in the dialog’s search bar. Click the desired language and then, click ‘Next’.

Click the ‘Install’ button in the ‘Install language features’ dialog box.

The new language will be added to your list of languages.

Click the three horizontal dots on the right end of the recently added language and select ‘Language’ options from the pop-up menu.

A default keyboard will be added to the selected language, this can be changed by adding more languages and deleting the initial one.

Click the ‘Add a keyboard’ button on the ‘Installed keyboards’ option below ‘Keyboards’.

Choose the keyboard you wish to add from the list and click on it.

Next, click the ‘keyboard’ icon on the right corner of the taskbar to open the touch keyboard.

Click the language button (ENG) on the lower right end of the touch keyboard and then select the newly added language keyboard.

You will now be typing in the alphabet of the chosen language, both onscreen and on the physical keyboard.

To quickly change the keyboard language, click the language button next to the keyboard icon and change the language in the pop-up.

You can also shuffle the keyboard languages by pressing the Windows key and Spacebar.

How to Remove a Keyboard on Windows 11

Click the keyboard language button next to the keyboard icon on the right corner of the taskbar.

Select ‘More keyboard settings’ at the bottom of the keyboard layout list.

Click the three horizontal dots next to the language, the keyboard for which you wish to remove, and select ‘Language options’ from the pop-up menu.

Scroll down the ‘Language options’ screen to find the ‘Keyboard’ section. Choose the keyboard you want to remove and click on the three horizontal dots adjacent to that keyboard name. Click the ‘Remove’ pop-up option.

The chosen keyboard will be removed.

Typing Accents With Keyboard Shortcuts on Windows 11

Each keyboard language brings its own range of keyboard shortcuts to the table. Here, we’ll list the keyboard shortcuts for some of the most common accents using the United States International English keyboard.

For this, make sure you have added United States English to your list of languages and have included the US-International English language keyboard too (refer to the previous section to know how to do both).

The language button next to the ‘keyboard’ icon on the taskbar has to be ‘ENG INTL’ to carry out the keyboard shortcuts we’ll mention next.

Different punctuations result in different accents.
Acute accent and cedilla – ‘ (apostrophe key)
Grave accent – ` (accent grave key)
Tilde accent – ~ (tilde key)
Umlaut accent – ” (quotes or quotations key)
Crcumflex – ^ (caret key)

Press the keys in the mentioned order to execute the right accented alphabets.

Typing Accents With Their Alt Codes on Windows 11

This method requires a bit of brainwork especially if you’re a regular with accents. You will need to memorize the alt codes for the respective alphabets and their accents. If that seems a little too brain-wracking, worry not! We have all alt codes right here.

Before entering the alt code for any alphabet’s accent, make sure you are pressing the Alt key on your keyboard. Hold this key until you’ve entered the entire alt code, then release the Alt key to see the accented alphabet.

Typing Accents With Windows Character Map on Windows 11

The Windows Character Map is a group of all special characters in addition to the alphabets, numbers, and symbols you’d find on a typical computer keyboard. The character map facilitates instant insertion of the required accented alphabet.

Click the ‘Search’ button in the taskbar, denoted by a magnifying glass icon. Enter ‘Character Map’ in the Search bar that appears at the top of the search page. Click the app name under ‘Best Match’ on the right side of the search results or the ‘Open’ option below the app name and icon on the left, to launch Character Map.

The Character Map is an expansive display of several characters. You can choose the font of these characters too. Click on the box next to ‘Font’ to make that choice.

When you click on any character, it will not appear in the ‘Characters to copy’ box. For this, you will need to either drag and drop the character into this box or you can click the character and then click ‘Select’ at the bottom right of the Character Map box.

Once you have selected the character, click the ‘Copy’ button next to ‘Select’. The character is now copied onto your clipboard. You can paste it in any textual format.

All languages have accents. Some languages have an evident mark of these accents in their written language, and some don’t. This guide is for those languages that demand written accents, and we hope these methods come in handy when you’re looking to type accents in any language.