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Writing in French
If you’re a US Windows user,* far and away the best way to type accents is with the international keyboard setting. This does not require a new keyboard or any software, but rather a simple change to your Control Panel.
Advantages
- Very easy to set up
- Maintains QWERTY layout
- Adds ability to type accents and guillemets (French quotation marks)
- No need to switch between keyboard layouts
- Works on both desktop and laptop computers
Disadvantages
- When you want to type an apostrophe or double quote rather than an accented vowel, you need to tap the spacebar after pressing those keys.
- There’s no way to type the ligature Å“ – for that, you’ll need to use the ALT code.
How to use the international keyboard
After you’ve made the necessary Control Panel change, you just need to type a helping character and then the letter to be accented:
| Type | Then type | |||
| Accent aigu | é | ‘ | (single quote) | e |
| Accent grave | à , è, ù | ` | (to the left of 1) | a, e, u |
| Cédille | ç | ‘ | (single quote) | c |
| Circonflexe | â, ê, î, ô, û | ^ | (shift + 6) | a, e, i, o, u |
| Tréma | ë, ï, ü | " | (shift + ‘) | e, i, u |
| Apostrophe | ‘ | ‘ | (single quote) | (spacebar) |
| Double quote | " | " | (shift + ‘) | (spacebar) |
For guillemets (French quotation marks), the procedure is a little different:
| Hold | As you type | ||
| Guillemets | « » | ctrl + alt | [ ] |
Set up
In order to use the international keyboard to type French accents, you need to select that keyboard layout, which is listed as something like English (international):
- Windows 10
- Windows 8
- Windows 7, Vista, or XP
- Windows 2000: Control Panel > Keyboard > Input Locales > Change > Add > Select the layout > OK
- Windows 95, 98, ME, NT: Control Panel > Keyboard > Language > Properties / Settings / Details (whichever you see) > Add > Select the layout > OK
Troubleshooting
If you keep typing things like jái instead of j’ai, remember that when you just want an apostrophe or double quote, you have to type a space after that key. Otherwise, your computer thinks you’re tying to type an accented letter. So for j’ai, type j then ‘ then spacebar then a i. You’ll get used to it!
* UK Windows users
Follow the same set up instructions but choose "UK extended keyboard." Your UK layout will be maintained and you can type most accents with the AltGr key, located next to the spacebar.
| Accent aigu | é | click AltGR and e at the same time |
| Accent grave | à , è, ù | type ` (to the left of 1) then a, e, u |
| Cédille | ç | click AltGR and c at the same time |
| Circonflexe | â, ê, î, ô, û | click AltGR and ^ at the same time, then a, e, i, o, u |
| Tréma | ë, ï, ü | click AltGR and " at the same time, then e, i, u |
Don’t use Windows?
Type French accents in any operating system
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Actually, the instructions are only for adding a new language. If you already have an English keyboard, you have to choose the Options for English (United States), rather than Add a Language. Then under Input Method, select Add an input method, and find or search for United States-International. They can be toggled easily by using [Windows Key] + [Spacebar].
Thanks for the tip, this is indeed much more efficient than using ALT codes 🙂