Spanish Translation Blog

How to Write Spanish Accent Marks

Accent marks can be somewhat of a mystery to non-Spanish speakers. Even if the Spanish student (or translator…) remembers where in the word to put the accent mark, he or she still might not be sure how to do so. There are three basic ways to write Spanish accent marks.

1. Keyboard Setup (Windows)

–Go to Start menu>Control Panel> Regional and Language Options

– From here, click on the Languages tab at the top and then the Details button

-Click on Keyboard and then Add. You can add any number of languages.

This will put the languages icon in your system tray, thus allowing you to switch back and forth between keyboard languages.

To type an accent mark, press the apostrophe key and then the vowel you want to accent. Ñ is the colon key and the two question marks (¿ and ?) are made by pressing the + and _ keys.

2. Ctrl. + Apostrophe + Vowel

This is a fast approach that is very easy to remember. Just press Control, the apostrophe key and then the vowel you want to accent.

3. Alt Codes for Spanish Accents

These can be helpful if you make a list and keep them by your computer. For short projects, it can be faster than switching your keyboard settings.

á = Alt + 0225

é = Alt + 0233

í = Alt + 0237

ó = Alt + 0243

ú = Alt + 0250

ñ = Alt + 0241

ü = Alt + 0252

¡ = Alt + 0161

¿ Alt + 0191