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Accent Marks/Characters in Spanish
Accent Marks/Characters in Spanish
In Spanish there is an accent mark over some vowels to show where the word is stressed.
There is a letter ñ that has a mark called a "tilde." This letter is pronounced like the "ny" of "canyon."
There is an upside-down question mark to begin a question and an upside-down
exclamation mark to begin an exclamation.
One way to type accent marks or characters in Spanish is to do the following:
- Turn on the key labeled "num lock" located on the top right of the keyboard.
- Hold down the "alt" key and type the following numbers using the number pad on the right of the keyboard:
- 130-é
- 160-á
- 161-í
- 162-ó
- 163-ú
- 164-ñ
- 168--¿
- 173--¡
Another way is to go to the top to "Insert." Find "Symbol" and click on it. Then look at the symbol chart that appears, find your symbol and click "Insert."
A third way that will work only for the accent marks is to press down on Ctrl+ ' (apostrophe), let go and then type your letter. Your letter should appear with the accent mark in place!
Here is what you do with a laptop:
Hold down the Shift key, and while holding it down, hit your number lock key (NumLk). On my laptop, the number lock key also says "ScrLk" and it is on the very top of my keyboard, two keys over from the power button.
Now, when you need an accent mark, hold down the Alt button and type the following numbers using your *number pad* --not the numbers which go along the top of your keyboard, but the numbers which are on the letter keys. For example, the letter U key also has a number 4 on it and the letter L key also has a number 3 on it. These are the numbered keys you want to use. Use the following numbers to get your accented characters:
- 130-é
- 160-á
- 161-í
- 162-ó
- 163-ú
- 164-ñ
- 168--¿
- 173--¡
How to do accents on a Macintosh
To get accents on the Mac, hold down the Option key, and while holding it down, type the letter vowel; then release those keys and type the letter that you want the accent to appear on:
- 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
- ü = Opt + u, then u
- For the tilde on the n:
- ñ = Opt + n, then n
The inverted punctuation marks are achieved as follows:
- ¡ = Opt + 1
- ¿ = Opt + shift + ?
Your learning management system may not allow you to type symbols. Therefore, you may need to cut and paste from Microsoft Word. Your words need to be spelled correctly, with the appropriate accent mark or symbol.
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