How to type Spanish accents – The best guide

Looking for easy ways to type Spanish accents? This guide will provide you with all the required information required to type Spanish accents. Learn Spanish online today and type like native speakers.

Spanish is considered to be an easy language to learn. The major reason for this claim is that most Spanish words sound exactly like the way they look. Spanish works the same as the exercise of ‘Sounding word out’ in English. In childhood, we used to look at the word and try to pronounce it on the basis of its spellings. The same is the case with Spanish.

Most of the Spanish words sound the way they look except for the accent marks. It might be looking difficult to you at this point but the good news is that these accents are not at all difficult. In fact, they are very easy to use and even easier to understand.

Why is it important to learn how to type Spanish accents

Learning how to type a Spanish accent is important because in today’s era most conversations are done through online mediums. Most of the written conversations and documentation occur through online channels. Learning to type Spanish accents will help you undertake such conversations easily.

These accents are here for a reason and missing them can change the entire meaning of your sentence so it is important to understand and learn them. Let’s move forward to explore why Spanish accents are used and what is their relevance.

Why does Spanish use accent marks

Spanish accents do a great job at clarifying the Spanish language. They are important to show the pause in the sentence, put the emphasis on the words that need to be focused on, and also help in identifying the difference between two identical words.  

Following are some of the cases that include accent marks in question words:

¿Quién? (Who?)

¿Qué? (What?)

¿Por qué? (Why?)

¿Dónde? (Where?)

¿Cuándo? (When?)

 ¿Cómo? (How?)

¿Cuál? (Which?)

¿Cuánto? (How much? /how many?)

Note: The important fact to remember here is to use the accent when the word inquires for a question but in the cases where the word is making a statement, leave the accent mark out.

For example,

¿Dónde es la reunión? (Where’s the meeting?)

En donde fue la semana pasada. (It’s where it was last week.)

So there are many reasons to learn Spanish if you want to type Spanish accents and to understand the Spanish text written.

Some important Spanish accents

All the vowels in English i.e. a,e,i,o,u are accented in Spanish. With accents marks, the vowels become á, é, í, ó, and ú.

 The ‘n’ of the English language becomes ‘ñ’. This n with a tilde over it became part of the Spanish written alphabets back in the 12^th century. Even today, it is being used and considered one of the most important parts of the Spanish language.

Those words with the ñ have the characteristic of one letter pronouncing like two. This means that the ñ sounds like the English phonation of “ny” which means it’s a two-for-one letter. For example, Mono (monkey) becomes moño with adding the tilde, and it is not possible for you to leave out the tilde in año (year) because that will change the entire meaning and will make the word impolite to use in a conversation. Now you see t how a little accent mark made such a big difference.

The ü, an u with diaeresis (diaeresis means the two dots present above u) is rarely used but it has its own appearance. Its pronunciation is very much like the sound of ‘w’ in English. For instance, the word containing an ü is bilingüe (bilingual).

How to type Spanish accents and to put the stress on the right word

Typing Spanish through the keyboard

After going through key Spanish accents it is now important to learn how to type them with mistakes. There are several ways to type Spanish accents using a computer keyboard.

Alt Codes: The first and one of the most popular ways to type Spanish accents is through Alt codes. These codes make the job easier and it has proven to be a go-to solution for typing Spanish accents. You are required to use the numeric side of the keyboard to write these accents. With your Windows computers, just press the ALT key plus the number to get the individual stressed letters:

á — Alt + 0225

é — Alt + 0233

í — Alt + 0237

ó — Alt + 0243

ú — Alt + 0250

ñ — Alt + 0241

ü — Alt + 0252

In case you are typing the Spanish accents through a Mac, then try these codes:

á — Opt + e, then a

é — Opt + e, then e

í — Opt + e, then i

ó — Opt + e, then o

ú — Opt + e, then u

Super easy right? All you are required to do is to memorize these codes and you are good to go with major Spanish accents.

In case you are going to type Spanish a lot, then it is feasible for you to download an international keyboard to your system. These international keyboards will make your job easier and error-free.

For Windows, go to the control panel. Press “Change Input Method” and click on the “Languages” option. Then choose “United States International” as your default language. Click OK and you are now ready to use the international keyboard.

In the case of macs, go to the Menu>System Preference>Language and Region>Keyboard Preferences>Spanish. Click on “Add” and you will get your international keyboard ready to type.

The key towards the right side of the space bar on your keyboard is the right Alt key. When you want to type a Spanish stressed letter, hold down the right Alt key as you type the vowel. For instance, holding down the right Alt key and hitting the letter “u” gets you ü.

Getting a Spanish keyboard on your phone

The phone is the only gadget that you have with you almost all the time. If you are learning Spanish accents, then your mobile phone can be one of the most important tools you may have.

You can get a better command of typing Spanish accent if you practice using user-friendly apps to learn Spanish. These apps make the use of accents marks easier for you. Plus, engaging in the repetitive practice of accents through the app will make you learn the pronunciations of Spanish words and accents in no time. These apps are highly beneficial to make you type Spanish faster. So if you’re going to hold a conversation or texting in Spanish these apps can be a lifesaver for you.

iOS Devices: You can easily access a foreign language keyboard on your iPhone. All you are required to do is to follow this simple step: Settings > General > Keyboard. Tap on “Keyboards.”

Choose the Spanish keyboard from the list of keyboards available. These keyboards are very user-friendly and understandable. The best part of these keyboards is that every accent mark including the punctuation points will appear on your keyboard.

Android Devices: These devices can also access the Spanish keyboards with a simple step. Go to Settings > Languages. Depending on the type and model of your device, you may be required to inactivate the “use system languages” option but after doing that you will have the option of entering the other languages that appear on the screen of your android phone. Press the option beside Spanish to add it then go back to the home screen.

To use the Spanish keyboard, swipe to the side of the space key. Swipe the other way to go back to the English keyboard.

Conclusion

Spanish accents may look complex but they are not hard to understand. They call Spanish a clear-cut language and that is true.  You can look at the accent marks above. They are easy to understand, pronounce and type using the right guidelines.

Spanish is spoken by almost 500 million people around the world. And most of them among these have command over the use of Spanish accents. Learn the Spanish accents through online Spanish tutors and use them like native speakers.

Once you understand the basic rules behind these, you can easily learn how to type Spanish accents. So do not get worried about seeing these accents. Start learning now!

Update your keyboards to the Spanish language. Start practicing the marks and their pronunciations. Listen to the learning apps and you will learn Spanish in no time. And if you want to have online Spanish classes, just come to italki and find your favorite teachers.