Type A with Accent À, Á, Â, Ã, Ä, Å or à, á, â, ã, ä, å

If you’re a language learner, student, writer, or someone who regularly types in languages that use accent marks, you may have struggled with how to type A with accent marks such as à, á, â, ã, ä, or å on your computer or mobile device.

The characters À, Á, Â, Ã, Ä, Å (uppercase) and à, á, â, ã, ä, å (lowercase) are all forms of the letter A with accent marks, also known as accented A or A accent characters. These accent marks change pronunciation and sometimes meaning in different languages.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• How to type a with accent on Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone
• Keyboard shortcuts and a with accent mark shortcuts
• How different languages use A accents

You don’t need to install any software or buy a special keyboard.

What Are A Accent Marks?

An A accent (also called accent on a or accented a) is a diacritical mark placed above the letter A. These accents are widely used in Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, and Scandinavian languages.

Types of Accents on the Letter A

1. À / à — A with grave accent
   • The a grave is used in French and Italian, and in limited cases in Portuguese.
   • In French, it has a grammatical role (e.g., à = “to”) and is pronounced as an open a sound.
   • In Italian, it marks stress, usually on the final syllable.
   • In Portuguese, it appears mainly in contractions (e.g., à = a + a) and does not change vowel quality.
2. Á / á — A with acute accent
   • The a acute is used in Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, and other languages.
   • Usually marks stress on a syllable.
   • In some languages, it can indicate vowel openness or length rather than a “higher” sound.
3. Ã / ã — A with tilde
   • The a tilde is used primarily in Portuguese to represent a nasal vowel sound.
   • Represents a nasal vowel sound.
   • Examples include mãe and maçã.
4. Ä / ä — A with umlaut (diaeresis)
   • The a with umlaut appears in German, Swedish, Finnish, and related languages.
   • In German, it represents a fronted vowel sound (umlaut).
   • In Swedish and Finnish, ä is considered a separate letter, not just an accented form of A.
5. Å / å — A with ring above
   • The a with ring is used in Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian.
   • It represents a distinct vowel sound and is treated as a separate letter in these alphabets, not merely an accented A.

Understanding and using these accent marks correctly can help you improve your language skills and communicate more effectively in different contexts.

A With Accent Pronunciation

The sound of the letter A changes depending on the accent mark and the language.

• À → open “ah” sound in French
• Á → stressed “ah” sound in Spanish and Portuguese
• Â → often indicates a longer or historical vowel sound (e.g., in French)
• Ã → nasal “ah” sound in Portuguese
• Ä → front vowel sound in Germanic languages such as German and Swedish
• Å → rounded vowel sound in Scandinavian languages

A With Accent in Different Languages

The letter A with accent appears in many languages, and each language uses it for different linguistic reasons such as stress, pronunciation, or grammar.

Portuguese (A com acento)
Portuguese uses á, â, and ã. The tilde (ã) indicates nasalization, while acute and circumflex accents affect stress and vowel quality.

Spanish (A con acento)
Spanish uses á to mark stress on a syllable, helping distinguish pronunciation and meaning in words.

French (A avec accent)
French commonly uses à and â. The grave accent often has a grammatical function, while the circumflex may reflect historical spelling or pronunciation.

Italian (A con accento)
Italian mainly uses à, typically to show stress on the final syllable of a word.

How to Type A with Accent on Windows

On Windows, you can type “a” with an accent mark in several ways, depending on your keyboard layout and operating system version. The most common method is to use the “Alt” key and numeric keypad to input the corresponding ASCII code.

A accent mark Alt Code

Alt codes are the best way to type a Spanish A with accent on a Windows PC. The below table shows the alt codes for typing capital and small A with different accents, along with their corresponding accent marks.

Use Character Map

To type different types of A use the Character Map on Windows to insert an “a with accent” character, follow these steps

1. Click on the Start menu and search for “Character Map”.
2. Open the Character Map application.
3. In the search bar, type “a” or “a with accent” and press Enter.
4. The accented A will appear. Select the desired A character by clicking on it.
5. Click on the “Select” button to copy the A accent to the “Characters to copy” field.
6. Click on the “Copy” button to copy the A accent to your clipboard.
7. Paste the character into your document or application by pressing “Ctrl + V” or right-clicking and selecting “Paste.”

How to Type an A with an Accent on Mac

To type “A” with an accent mark on Mac, you can use the keyboard shortcut by holding down the “Option” key-

Mac shortcut

To type special characters A with accents, there are several keyboard shortcuts you can use. Here are the shortcuts for typing accented A on a Mac:

Hold Shift to type capital A with accent mark.

How to Type A With Accent in Google Docs

To type “a with accent” in Google Docs, you can use the following steps:

1. Open a new Google Docs on your computer or an existing one in which you want to add the “a with accent.”
2. Place your cursor where you want to insert the accented letter.
3. Click on “Insert” in the top menu bar.
4. Select “Special Characters” from the drop-down menu.
5. In the “Special Characters” dialog box, type “a with accent” in the search box at the top of the window.
6. Select the desired “a with accent” character from the search results.
7. Click on “Insert” to add the character to your document.

How to Type A With an Accent in Microsoft Word

To insert an A with an accent mark in Microsoft Word you can use the Microsoft Word shortcut or Symbol function:

Use Microsoft Word shortcut keys

1. Place your cursor where you want to insert the accented letter.
2. Press and hold the “Ctrl” key and type the apostrophe key (‘) once.
3. Release both keys and type the letter “A” to insert “Á”
4. For other accent marks, use the following key combinations:

• À: “Ctrl + `” (grave accent), release both keys, then type “A”
• Â: “Ctrl + Shift + ^” (circumflex), release all keys, then type “A”
• Ã: “Ctrl + Shift + ~” (tilde), release all keys, then type “A”
• Ä: “Ctrl + Shift + :” (colon), release all keys, then type “A”

It’s important to note that these shortcuts are only meant to function in Microsoft Word. If you want to type these accented letters other than Microsoft Word, you may need to use other methods. Additionally, if you want to type uppercase letters, make sure to “turn caps lock ON” while you type the shortcuts.

Use Symbol function

One of the alternative methods is using the Insert Symbol dialog box. To insert “a with accent” using this method, follow these steps:

1. Open the Word document and place the cursor where you want to insert the letter.
2. Click on the “Insert” tab, then click “Symbol” and select “More Symbols.”
3. In the Symbol dialog box, select “Latin-1 Supplement” from the “Subset:” drop-down list.
4. This will display all the symbols under this category including lowercase and uppercase “a with accent” symbols.
5. Locate the accented letter you wish to insert and double-click on it. Alternatively, select the desired symbol and click “Insert” to add it to your document.

How to Type “A” with an Accent Mark on Android and iOS

On Android and iOS devices, you can access accented letters by holding down the corresponding base letter on the virtual keyboard. Here are the steps

1. Open a text field on your Android or iOS device.
2. Press and hold the letter “a” on the virtual keyboard.
3. A popup with various accented versions of the letter “a” should appear.
4. Slide your finger to select the accented version of “a” that you want to use, and release your finger.

• Related article:
  • Type O with Accent Mark Ò, Ó, Ô, Õ, Ö
  • Type U with Accent Ú, Ù, Û, Ũ, Ü
  • Á, À, and A with Apostrophe on Top
  • C with cedilla (Ç)
  • Y with accent