COPY & TYPE / A WITH UMLAUT
Select Ä for uppercase or ä for lowercase. Copy the letter, then paste it into your text.
Click a character, then paste with Ctrl+V or ⌘V.
KEYBOARD METHODS
Turn Num Lock on. Hold Alt, enter 0228, and release Alt for ä. Use 0196 for Ä.
Include the leading zero. These sequences use the numeric keypad, not the number row above the letters. If your laptop has no keypad, use Character Map or copy ä from this page.
With the US or ABC input layout, press Option + U, release both keys, then press a for ä. Hold Shift with the final letter for Ä.
In supported apps, you can also hold the a key and choose ä from the accent menu. Other input layouts may use a different shortcut.
On the on-screen keyboard, touch and hold a, then slide to ä. Switch to uppercase before holding the key if you need Ä.
The choices depend on the active keyboard and language. If the umlaut is missing, add a suitable language keyboard or use the copy button.
Type 00E4, then press Alt + X for ä. For Ä, use 00C4. Select only the code before converting if it follows other letters or digits.
On a US keyboard, you can also press Ctrl+Shift+semicolon, release, then type a. This shortcut belongs to Word; it does not apply to every app.
CHARACTER REFERENCE
| Letter | Unicode | Windows Alt | HTML named | HTML decimal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ä | U+00C4 | Alt+0196 | Ä | Ä |
| ä | U+00E4 | Alt+0228 | ä | ä |
For normal text, paste the letter itself. HTML entities are for HTML documents; they generally remain literal text in a message. Named entities are case-sensitive.
MEANING & SPELLING
In German, ä is the umlaut form of a. It appears in words such as Käse (cheese) and in vowel changes such as Apfel → Äpfel (apple → apples). The dots belong to the spelling of the word, including in uppercase text.
You will also encounter Ä and ä in Swedish and Finnish, where they are distinct alphabet letters. German ae substitution is not a universal rule for every language that uses ä.
ä ae
In German, use ae only when the actual umlaut cannot be entered or accepted. For example, Änderung → Aenderung. Use the original character whenever Unicode text is supported.
Preserve capitalization. The title-case replacement is Ae, while all-capital text uses AE. For a personal name or official record, follow the spelling supplied by the person or issuing authority.
This is a German fallback. Do not apply it automatically to ä in another language or name.
Ä is not the same letter as Å. Ä has two dots, while Å has a ring. Do not swap them in a name or address simply because they look similar.
Yes. Ä is the uppercase form of ä. The umlaut remains part of the letter when you capitalize it.
Unicode uses the name “Latin letter A with diaeresis” to identify this character. In a German word, those dots serve as an umlaut. A character name and a mark’s role in a language are different kinds of information.
Some forms accept only a limited character set. Try pasting into a plain-text document to check that copying worked. If the document shows the correct letter but the form rejects it, follow the form’s character or spelling requirements.
Character values: Unicode Latin-1 Supplement. Keyboard methods: Apple Support and Microsoft Support.