Acute vowels
Á á É é Í í Ó ó Ú ú
The written accent can mark stress or distinguish otherwise identical words.
SPANISH CHARACTER SET
Spanish accented letters and symbols
Copy Spanish acute vowels, Ñ, Ü, and inverted punctuation. Uppercase and lowercase forms are together in one practical set.
Click a character, then paste with Ctrl+V or ⌘V.
Characters 16Groups 4Format Unicode text
QUICK REFERENCE
Find the right character
Spanish N
Ñ ñ
Ñ is a separate letter called eñe. It is not an optional accent on N.
U with diaeresis
Ü ü
The diaeresis shows that U is pronounced in combinations such as güe and güi.
Opening punctuation
¿ ¡
Spanish begins questions and exclamations with inverted marks and closes them with ? or !.
KEYBOARD METHODS
How to type and insert these characters
Use Alt codes or a Spanish layout
Hold Alt and enter the four-digit code from the table on the numeric keypad. For frequent Spanish writing, add a Spanish or US-International keyboard and switch layouts with your system keyboard control.
Use Option accent keys
Press Option + E, release, then type a vowel for an acute accent. Press Option + N and then N for ñ. Press Option + U and then U for ü. Hold Shift with the final letter for uppercase.
Hold the letter or punctuation key
Touch and hold a vowel, N, U, ?, or ! on the on-screen keyboard, then slide to the Spanish form. Add a Spanish keyboard if inverted punctuation or a letter is missing.
Use a shortcut or Unicode
For acute vowels, press Ctrl + apostrophe, release, and type the vowel. You can also enter a hexadecimal Unicode value and press Alt+X, such as 00F1 for ñ or 00BF for ¿.
UNICODE REFERENCE
Character codes
| Character | Name | Group | Unicode | Windows Alt | HTML named | HTML decimal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Á | Capital A with acute | Acute vowels | U+00C1 | Alt+0193 | Á | Á |
| á | Lowercase a with acute | Acute vowels | U+00E1 | Alt+0225 | á | á |
| É | Capital E with acute | Acute vowels | U+00C9 | Alt+0201 | É | É |
| é | Lowercase e with acute | Acute vowels | U+00E9 | Alt+0233 | é | é |
| Í | Capital I with acute | Acute vowels | U+00CD | Alt+0205 | Í | Í |
| í | Lowercase i with acute | Acute vowels | U+00ED | Alt+0237 | í | í |
| Ó | Capital O with acute | Acute vowels | U+00D3 | Alt+0211 | Ó | Ó |
| ó | Lowercase o with acute | Acute vowels | U+00F3 | Alt+0243 | ó | ó |
| Ú | Capital U with acute | Acute vowels | U+00DA | Alt+0218 | Ú | Ú |
| ú | Lowercase u with acute | Acute vowels | U+00FA | Alt+0250 | ú | ú |
| Ñ | Capital N with tilde | Spanish N | U+00D1 | Alt+0209 | Ñ | Ñ |
| ñ | Lowercase n with tilde | Spanish N | U+00F1 | Alt+0241 | ñ | ñ |
| Ü | Capital U with diaeresis | Diaeresis | U+00DC | Alt+0220 | Ü | Ü |
| ü | Lowercase u with diaeresis | Diaeresis | U+00FC | Alt+0252 | ü | ü |
| ¿ | Inverted question mark | Opening punctuation | U+00BF | Alt+0191 | ¿ | ¿ |
| ¡ | Inverted exclamation mark | Opening punctuation | U+00A1 | Alt+0161 | ¡ | ¡ |
For ordinary writing, copy and paste the character itself. Use an HTML entity only in HTML source. A listed Windows Alt code requires a numeric keypad and may depend on the active character set.
USAGE GUIDE
What belongs in the Spanish character set?
Spanish uses the five vowels with an acute accent: á, é, í, ó, and ú. It also uses ñ as a separate alphabet letter, ü as a diaeresis in a limited set of words, and the opening punctuation marks ¿ and ¡.
Accents are part of correct spelling. They can show stress and distinguish words such as tú and tu. Preserve them in names, quotations, schoolwork, and professional writing.
This page groups the characters needed for normal Spanish text. It does not include marks from other languages merely because they can appear on the same keyboard.
The acute accent and tilde are not the same mark
Spanish á, é, í, ó, and ú use an acute accent. Ñ uses a tilde and is a separate letter. Ü uses a diaeresis. Keeping the names separate makes it easier to choose the correct character and keyboard method.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions about Spanish accented letters
What are the Spanish accented letters?
The accented vowels are á, é, í, ó, and ú, with uppercase Á, É, Í, Ó, and Ú. Spanish also uses Ñ and ñ, Ü and ü, plus ¿ and ¡.
Does every Spanish word need a written accent?
No. Written accents follow Spanish spelling rules. Many words have no accent mark, even though every spoken word has stress.
Is ñ an accented N?
It is often searched that way, but ñ is a separate letter of the Spanish alphabet. Its mark is a tilde and its name is eñe.
Why does Spanish use ¿ and ¡?
The inverted marks show where a question or exclamation begins. The phrase closes with the familiar ? or ! mark.
Related character pages
References: RAE Spanish orthography, Unicode character charts, Apple accent entry guidance, Microsoft character code guidance.