The most common accented A is à or á. On Windows, hold Alt and type 0224 on the numeric keypad for à, or 0225 for á. On Mac, press Option+` then A for à, or Option+E then A for á. This guide covers how to type A with accent in every form — à á â ã ä å ā ă ą and the capitals, on Windows, Mac, Word, Google Docs, phones, Chromebook, and the web.
Click any glyph above to copy it. If you just need one accented A pasted into a form or filename, that is the fastest route on any device. Read on for the keyboard methods that let you type them without copying.
A with accent: full reference table
Every accented A, its Unicode code point, the Windows Alt code where one exists, the Word Alt+X hex code, and the HTML form. Note the two number columns are different: Alt codes are decimal, the Unicode and Alt+X values are hex. Do not feed a U+ hex value into an Alt code.
| Char | Name | Unicode (hex) | Alt code (decimal) | Word Alt+X (hex) | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| à | A with grave | U+00E0 | Alt+0224 | 00E0 | à |
| á | A with acute | U+00E1 | Alt+0225 | 00E1 | á |
| â | A with circumflex | U+00E2 | Alt+0226 | 00E2 | â |
| ã | A with tilde | U+00E3 | Alt+0227 | 00E3 | ã |
| ä | A with diaeresis | U+00E4 | Alt+0228 | 00E4 | ä |
| å | A with ring above | U+00E5 | Alt+0229 | 00E5 | å |
| ā | A with macron | U+0101 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0101 then Alt+X | 0101 | ā |
| ă | A with breve | U+0103 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0103 then Alt+X | 0103 | ă |
| ą | A with ogonek | U+0105 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0105 then Alt+X | 0105 | ą |
| À | Capital A with grave | U+00C0 | Alt+0192 | 00C0 | À |
| Á | Capital A with acute | U+00C1 | Alt+0193 | 00C1 | Á |
| Â | Capital A with circumflex | U+00C2 | Alt+0194 | 00C2 | Â |
| Ã | Capital A with tilde | U+00C3 | Alt+0195 | 00C3 | Ã |
| Ä | Capital A with diaeresis | U+00C4 | Alt+0196 | 00C4 | Ä |
| Ā | Capital A with macron | U+0100 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0100 then Alt+X | 0100 | Ā |
| Ă | Capital A with breve | U+0102 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0102 then Alt+X | 0102 | Ă |
| Ą | Capital A with ogonek | U+0104 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0104 then Alt+X | 0104 | Ą |
What the accent marks mean
Nine different marks sit on top of (or under) the A in this set. They are separate characters, not styling:
- Grave à, a stroke leaning down to the right.
- Acute á, a stroke leaning up to the right.
- Circumflex â, a small hat, ^.
- Tilde ã, a wavy line.
- Diaeresis ä, two dots. The same glyph is called an umlaut in German; the name changes, the character does not.
- Ring above å, a small circle.
- Macron ā, a flat bar.
- Breve ă, a small cup, curving up.
- Ogonek ą, a small hook attached below and to the right.
Uppercase and lowercase are entirely separate characters with their own code points. À (U+00C0) and à (U+00E0) are not one character in two sizes, so a lowercase Alt code will not give you a capital. Type the uppercase code, or hold Shift with a dead-key method.
Windows
For the six Latin-1 letters (à á â ã ä å and their capitals), hold Alt, type the decimal code from the table on the numeric keypad, then release Alt. Num Lock must be on. Example: Alt+0224 gives à, Alt+0196 gives Ä. Always use the leading-zero form shown here, it reads from the Windows-1252 table and is consistent. Zero-less codes read from your machine’s OEM code page and can differ between the US (CP437) and the UK, Ireland, Canada, and Australia (CP850), so stick with the four-digit codes.
No numeric keypad? A laptop’s top-row numbers will not work for Alt codes. Use our on-screen accent keyboard to click the letter instead, or press Win+. to open the emoji panel and search “a acute.”
The macron, breve, and ogonek letters (ā ă ą Ā Ă Ą) have no Windows Alt code. Open Character Map (search “charmap”), find the letter, and copy it — or type them in Word with the Alt+X method below.
Mac
Mac has no Alt codes. It uses dead keys: press the accent combination, release, then press A (or Shift+A for a capital).
- à. Option+` then A
- á. Option+E then A
- â. Option+I then A
- ã. Option+N then A
- ä. Option+U then A
- å. Option+A (single press, no follow-up letter)
The macron, breve, and ogonek are not on the standard US layout. Open the Character Viewer with Ctrl+Cmd+Space, search the letter name (for example “macron”), and double-click to insert.
Word, Outlook, and OneNote
Word has its own accent shortcuts that work without a keypad. Hold the accent combo, then press the letter:
- Ctrl+` then A → à
- Ctrl+’ (apostrophe) then A → á
- Ctrl+Shift+^ then A → â
- Ctrl+Shift+~ then A → ã
- Ctrl+Shift+: then A → ä
- Ctrl+Shift+@ then A → å
For any letter, including the ones with no Alt code, type the hex value from the Alt+X column and press Alt+X. Type 0101 then Alt+X to get ā; type 0104 then Alt+X to get Ą. This trick works in Word, Outlook, and OneNote only. It does not work in Excel, PowerPoint, or Google Docs. The Insert → Symbol dialog is another route and behaves identically in PowerPoint, there, Alt+X and the Ctrl accent shortcuts do nothing, so use Insert → Symbol or paste.
Excel and Google Sheets
The reliable method in both is the UNICHAR function, which takes a decimal number (the decimal value of the code point, not the Alt code). =UNICHAR(224) returns à, =UNICHAR(257) returns ā, =UNICHAR(260) returns Ą. On Windows, Excel also accepts the Alt codes from the table directly in a cell. Google Sheets has no Insert → Symbol menu at all, so UNICHAR or a paste from the copy widget above is your route. If you use an OS input method inside a Sheets cell, press F2 first to enter edit mode.
Google Docs
Go to Insert → Special characters. Type a name such as “latin small letter a with breve” in the search box, or draw the shape in the sketch pad, then click the result. There is no Alt code or Alt+X support in Docs, so this menu (or a paste) is the way in.
iPhone and Android
Press and hold the A key on the on-screen keyboard. A row of accented options pops up, slide to à, á, â, ã, ä, å, or ā and release. For capitals, tap Shift first, then long-press A. The breve and ogonek may not appear on the default English keyboard; if you need ą regularly, add the relevant language keyboard in settings, or set up a text replacement (Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement on iPhone; Personal dictionary on Android) so a shortcut like “aog” expands to ą.
Chromebook
ChromeOS has no Alt codes. Press Ctrl+Shift+U, then type the hex code point (no U+ prefix), then Enter or Space. Ctrl+Shift+U, 00e0, Space gives à; 0101 gives ā. An underlined u appears while you type to confirm input mode. This one method covers every letter in the table, including the macron, breve, and ogonek. You can also open the picker with Launcher+Shift+Space (or the Quick Insert key on newer models). If a web field swallows the shortcut, paste from the copy widget instead.
Notion, Slack, Discord, and Canva
None of these has a dedicated accent shortcut. Use the OS method for wherever you are typing (Mac Option keys, phone long-press, Chromebook Ctrl+Shift+U), or paste from the copy widget. If you type an accented A often in one of these apps, set a text replacement at the OS level and it will expand everywhere. In Slack and Discord, a shortcode-style expansion is your best permanent fix, since neither offers a symbol menu.
HTML and CSS
The six Latin-1 letters have friendly named entities: à, á, â, ã, ä, å (uppercase them for capitals, e.g. À). The macron, breve, and ogonek have no named entity, use the numeric form: ā for ā, Ą for Ą. In CSS content, use a backslash and the hex value: \0101 for ā. If your page is served as UTF-8, you can also just paste the literal character.
Precomposed vs combining accents
Every letter in the table above is precomposed: one code point holds both the A and its mark. There is a second way to build the same shape, a plain A followed by a combining mark, such as A + combining gr
ave (U+0300). On screen à and A+U+0300 can look identical, yet they are different byte sequences. This matters in practice:
- Search and filters, a search for the precomposed à may not match text stored as A + combining mark, and vice versa.
- Filenames — the two forms can sort differently or appear as duplicates; macOS and Windows normalize differently, so a file named with one form on a Mac may look “wrong” on Windows.
- Forms and databases, a login or coupon field can reject a value that looks correct because the stored version uses the other form.
- Copy/paste, pasting from a PDF or older app sometimes yields the combining sequence.
The fix is normalization. Converting text to NFC composes the marks back into single precomposed characters, this is what most systems expect. The copy widget at the top of this page emits precomposed (NFC) characters, so pasting from it avoids the problem entirely.
Troubleshooting
- Alt code does nothing. Num Lock is off, or you used the top-row numbers. Alt codes require the numeric keypad. On a laptop without one, use the copy widget, Win+. or Character Map.
- Wrong character appears, you likely dropped the leading zero. Alt+0224 (no zero) reads a different code page than Alt+0224 and can produce the wrong glyph. Always use the four-digit form.
- Box, blank, or a different-looking mark, the font lacks that glyph. The macron, breve, and ogonek letters are missing from some display and monospace fonts even though your text is correct. Switch to a broad font (Arial, Segoe UI, Calibri, Noto) and it will render.
- ā ă ą refuse to type, these have no Alt code by design. Use Alt+X in Word (hex + Alt+X), Ctrl+Shift+U on Chromebook, Character Map/Viewer, or the copy widget.
- Alt+X converts the wrong thing, it grabs the characters immediately before the cursor. Make sure only the 4-digit hex sits to the left, with no adjoining letters or digits.
- Capital comes out lowercase, you used the lowercase code. À and à have separate values; use the uppercase Alt code or hold Shift with a dead key.
- Keyboard layout produces symbols instead of accents, a dead-key layout (US-International, or a language layout) treats
'and`as accent triggers. That is expected; type a space after the mark to get a plain quote, or switch layout with Win+Space / the macOS input menu. - Looks right but fails validation, a normalization mismatch. Retype using a precomposed method, or paste from the copy widget, which outputs NFC.
Quick examples
- à on Windows: Alt+0224. On Mac: Option+` then A. On Chromebook: Ctrl+Shift+U, 00e0, Space.
- Ä (capital) in Word: Ctrl+Shift+: then Shift+A, or type
00C4then Alt+X. - ā (no Alt code): Word
0101+ Alt+X; Sheets=UNICHAR(257); or click it in the copy widget. - Ą in HTML:
Ą.
Related guides
Type more than one accented letter? See the complete accented letters guide for every letter’s methods in one place, browse the full accented letters category, or grab characters fast with the accent keyboard tool. For neighboring letters, see B with Accent: Every Way to Type It on Keyboard, Typing C with Accents on Windows, Mac & Mobile, How to Type D with an Accent Mark, and E with Accent: Every Way to Type It on Keyboard.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Alt code for à?
Hold Alt and type 0224 on the numeric keypad for à. For capital À, use Alt+0192. Num Lock must be on and you must use the keypad, not the top-row numbers.
Why is there no Alt code for ā, ă, or ą?
Windows Alt codes only cover characters in the Windows-1252 set. The macron, breve, and ogonek A’s live outside it, so they have no standard Alt code. Use Word’s hex + Alt+X, Chromebook’s Ctrl+Shift+U, Character Map, or the copy widget instead.
How do I type an accented A without a numeric keypad?
Alt codes need the keypad. Without one, press Win+. for the emoji panel, use Character Map, type it in Word with Alt+X, or click the character in the copy widget at the top of this page.
Why does my accented A look right but fail in a search or login field?
The text is probably stored as a base A plus a separate combining mark rather than a single precomposed character. Normalize to NFC, retype with a precomposed method, or paste from the copy widget, which outputs precomposed characters.
What is the difference between ä and å?
ä (A with diaeresis) carries two dots above the letter; å (A with ring above) carries a small circle. They are separate characters with separate code points. U+00E4 and U+00E5, and separate Alt codes, 0228 and 0229.
How do I type a capital accented A instead of lowercase?
Uppercase forms have their own code points, so use the uppercase value: Alt+0192 for À, or type the hex like 00C1 then Alt+X in Word for Á. With a dead-key method, hold Shift when you press A.
How do I get an accented A on my phone?
Press and hold the A key on the on-screen keyboard until the accent options appear, then slide to the one you want. Tap Shift first for a capital. Add a language keyboard if the breve or ogonek isn’t offered.