Punctuation marks or diacritics on macOS
Posted on August 9, 2017 • 1 min read • 210 words
In the past, as soon as I had to use diacritics on the Mac, I had to search the internet first. You know, the umlaut, diaeresis, grave accent and things like that. I didn’t use them that much. I don’t think you come across them very often in English. Fortunately, I now have a mnemonic that helps me remember them better.
Diacritical marks
in macOS you insert these types of special characters by using alt with another key. In the table below you can see my mnemonics. They are sometimes a bit obvious, or they are simply missing. Then I keep trying until I get the right one. In the table below I have used the term ‘alt’. On my Macbook this is on the keyboard. Depending on the version of your Mac, this may contain option or this symbol:
| sign | example | key | My mnemonic |
|---|---|---|---|
| ¨ | ü ë ä ö ï | alt-u + letter | umlaut |
| ´ | ú é á ó í | alt-e + letter | often used with e/not umlaut |
| ` | ù è à ò ì | ||
| ˆ | û ê â ô | alt-i + letter | |
| ˜ | ñ ã | alt+n | |
| ç | ç | alt+c | circumflex |
These are the most common characters for my writing. When I need other special characters, I use Google.
