E with an accent shows up as é, è, ê, ë and a handful of less common forms like ē or ę. On Windows, hold Alt and type 0233 on the numeric keypad for é. On Mac, press Option+E and then E. Both put the letter straight into Word, Google Docs, and almost any text field.
The four accents you probably came for — grave (è), acute (é), circumflex (ê) and diaeresis (ë), all have genuine Windows Alt codes. The rarer marks (macron, breve, dot above, ogonek, caron) do not, so those need a different route. The table below sorts out which is which.
Quick reference: every accented E and its code
Alt codes are decimal and need the numeric keypad. Word’s Alt+X codes are hexadecimal, you type the code, then press Alt+X. Do not mix the two: the number that works for one will not work for the other.
| Character | Name | Unicode | Windows Alt code (decimal) | Word (type, then Alt+X) | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| è | E with grave | U+00E8 | Alt+0232 | 00E8 | è |
| é | E with acute | U+00E9 | Alt+0233 | 00E9 | é |
| ê | E with circumflex | U+00EA | Alt+0234 | 00EA | ê |
| ë | E with diaeresis | U+00EB | Alt+0235 | 00EB | ë |
| ē | E with macron | U+0113 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0113 then Alt+X | 0113 | ē |
| ĕ | E with breve | U+0115 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0115 then Alt+X | 0115 | ĕ |
| ė | E with dot above | U+0117 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0117 then Alt+X | 0117 | ė |
| ę | E with ogonek | U+0119 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0119 then Alt+X | 0119 | ę |
| ě | E with caron | U+011B | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 011B then Alt+X | 011B | ě |
| È | Capital E with grave | U+00C8 | Alt+0200 | 00C8 | È |
| É | Capital E with acute | U+00C9 | Alt+0201 | 00C9 | É |
| Ê | Capital E with circumflex | U+00CA | Alt+0202 | 00CA | Ê |
| Ë | Capital E with diaeresis | U+00CB | Alt+0203 | 00CB | Ë |
| Ē | Capital E with macron | U+0112 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0112 then Alt+X | 0112 | Ē |
| Ĕ | Capital E with breve | U+0114 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0114 then Alt+X | 0114 | Ĕ |
| Ė | Capital E with dot above | U+0116 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0116 then Alt+X | 0116 | Ė |
| Ę | Capital E with ogonek | U+0118 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0118 then Alt+X | 0118 | Ę |
| Ě | Capital E with caron | U+011A | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 011A then Alt+X | 011A | Ě |
What the accent marks mean
Nine different marks sit on top of E in this set, and the shape tells you which is which. The grave (è) slopes down to the right, the acute (é) slopes up to the right, and people mix these two up constantly.
The circumflex (ê) is a small peak, the diaeresis (ë) is two dots, and the caron (ě) is a small v. The remaining three are quieter: the macron (ē) is a flat bar, the breve (ĕ) is a shallow cup, and the dot above (ė) is a single dot. The ogonek (ę) is the odd one, a small hook that hangs below the letter rather than sitting on top.
Uppercase and lowercase are the same letter with the same mark, just scaled: É is the capital of é, Ę is the capital of ę. Each pair has its own separate code, so you cannot type the lowercase and hit Shift to capitalise a specific accented form after the fact.
Windows: Alt codes and the emoji panel
Alt codes are the fastest route for the four common accents. Hold the Alt key, type the four-digit code on the numeric keypad, then release Alt.
- é. Alt+0233
- è. Alt+0232
- ê. Alt+0234
- ë. Alt+0235
- É. Alt+0201, È. Alt+0200, Ê. Alt+0202, Ë. Alt+0203
The leading zero matters. Alt+0233 reads from the Windows-1252 table and gives you é.
Alt+0233 (no zero) reads from your machine’s OEM code page and gives a completely different character — Θ on a US setup, Ú on many UK, Irish, Canadian and Australian machines. Always use the zero.
The five rare marks (ē ĕ ė ę ě and their capitals) have no Alt code at all. For those, open Character Map (search “charmap”), find the letter, and copy it, or use the Word method below. If your laptop has no numeric keypad, the built-in accent keyboard tool lets you click any variant and copy it in a second.
The emoji panel (Win + .) also has a symbols tab, but it is slower than Alt codes for letters you type often.
Mac: Option-key dead keys
Mac has no Alt codes. It uses “dead keys”, you press the accent combination, nothing appears yet, then you press the letter and the two combine.
- é. Option+E, then E
- è. Option+` (backtick), then E
- ê. Option+I, then E
- ë. Option+U, then E
Hold Shift with the final E for the capitals (É, È, Ê, Ë). A quicker trick on modern macOS: press and hold the E key on the keyboard and a small menu of accented options pops up, exactly like on an iPhone.
The US keyboard has no dead keys for macron, breve, dot above, ogonek or caron. For ē, ę, ě and the rest, open the Character Viewer with Ctrl+Cmd+Space, search the accent name, and double-click to insert.
Microsoft Word: the Alt+X hex trick
Word handles every variant, including the ones with no Alt code. Type the hexadecimal code from the table, then press Alt+X and it flips to the character.
- é, type 00E9, press Alt+X
- ē, type 0113, press Alt+X
- ę, type 0119, press Alt+X
- ě, type 011B, press Alt+X
If Alt+X converts the wrong number of characters, select just the code first so Word knows where it starts. This same trick works in Outlook and OneNote. It does not work in Excel, PowerPoint, or Google Docs, do not carry it over there.
You can also use Insert → Symbol → More Symbols, which has a search box and shows the shortcut for each character. The same Insert → Symbol route works in PowerPoint, which has no Alt+X of its own.
Excel and PowerPoint
In Excel, the cleanest method is the UNICHAR function with the decimal code point. Type =UNICHAR(233) for é or =UNICHAR(275) for ē, then copy the result and paste it as a value if you want plain text.
Windows Alt codes also work directly in an Excel cell for the four common accents (Alt+0233 and friends). Insert → Symbol is available in both Excel and PowerPoint for everything else. Neither app supports Alt+X.
Google Docs and Google Sheets
In Google Docs, go to Insert → Special characters. You can type the accent name, search “latin small letter e with acute,” or draw the mark in the box to find it. Click to drop it into the document.
Google Sheets has no Special characters menu at all. Use =UNICHAR(233) for é or =UNICHAR(281) for ę, or type the letter in Docs and paste it into the cell. To use any OS-level shortcut inside a cell, press F2 first to enter edit mode.
iPhone and Android
On both, press and hold the E key. A row of accented options appears, è é ê ë and usually ē, ė and ę. Slide your finger to the one you want and let go.
The long-press menu does not always include the caron (ě) or breve (ĕ). If the one you need is missing, copy it from the widget at the top of this page, or set up a text replacement (iOS: Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement) so a shortcut like “eex” expands to ě.
Chromebook
Chromebooks have no Alt codes. Use Ctrl+Shift+U, then type the hexadecimal code, then press Enter or Space. An underlined u appears while you type to confirm the mode.
- é — Ctrl+Shift+U, then 00e9, then Enter
- ē. Ctrl+Shift+U, then 0113, then Enter
- ę. Ctrl+Shift+U, then 0119, then Enter
Type the hex only, no U+ prefix. Some web fields grab the shortcut before ChromeOS can; if it fails, use the symbol picker at Launcher+Shift+Space, or just paste.
Notion, Slack, Discord and Canva
None of these have a dedicated accent shortcut. The reliable answer is to paste, copy the character from the widget above and drop it in. Every one of these apps accepts pasted Unicode without complaint.
If you type café or résumé often, set up a text replacement in your operating system rather than the app. macOS (System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacements) and Windows (via the emoji panel’s clipboard, or a tool like PowerToys) push the accented character into every app at once, Notion and Discord included.
HTML and CSS
On the web, the four common accents have named entities: é (é), è (è), ê (ê), ë (ë). The rarer marks use numeric entities, such as ē for ē or ę for ę.
In CSS content values, use the hex escape with a backslash: content: "\00E9"; for é. If your page is served as UTF-8, you can usually just paste the raw character into the HTML and skip entities entirely.
Precomposed vs combining: why identical letters behave differently
There are two ways to build é. One is a single precomposed character, U+00E9, which is what every method above produces.
The other is a plain e followed by a combining acute accent (U+0301) that stacks on top. On screen they look identical.
Under the hood they are different byte sequences, and that causes real problems. A search for “café” typed as precomposed will not match “café” stored as e + combining accent. Filenames, form validation, password fields, and duplicate checks can all treat the two as different strings.
The fix is normalization. Systems that care (databases, search indexes, some programming languages) convert everything to one form, usually NFC, which prefers the single precomposed character. When you copy an accented E from a Mac filename and it “won’t match” elsewhere, this decomposed-vs-precomposed split is almost always the reason.
Troubleshooting the accented E
The Alt code does nothing. Num Lock is probably off, or you are using the number row instead of the numeric keypad. Alt codes ignore the top-row numbers entirely.
You get the wrong character. If Alt+0233 gave you Θ or Ú instead of é, you dropped the leading zero.
Retype it as Alt+0233. If the accent slopes the wrong way, you have swapped grave (è) and acute (é), acute rises to the right.
The letter shows as a box or question mark. The font lacks that glyph.
The four common accents are in nearly every font, but macron (ē), breve (ĕ), ogonek (ę) and caron (ě) fall out of older or decorative fonts and render as □ or a blank. Switch to a broad font such as Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman, or Noto.
Autocorrect keeps changing it. Some apps “fix” ë back to e or reflow é in a URL. Add the word to your dictionary, or paste after typing rather than before.
Where these letters actually turn up
The acute é is the one most English speakers meet: café, résumé, fiancée, and names like José. French uses the grave è (père) and circumflex ê (fête), and the diaeresis ë appears in Noël and in surnames like Brontë.
The rarer marks belong to specific languages. The ogonek ę is Polish, the caron ě is Czech, the dot-above ė is Lithuanian, and the macron ē marks a long vowel in Latin transliteration and in Māori. If you are typing a proper noun, match the exact mark the language uses, the wrong accent changes the word.
Related letters and guides
Accented E is one row in a much bigger set. The full complete guide to typing accented letters covers the shared shortcuts across every letter, and you can browse the whole accented-letter guides library by letter.
- Typing C with accents, the cedilla (ç) works differently from the marks on E.
- Typing D with an accent mark, for the caron and stroke forms of D.
- Typing F with accents, a rarer set, useful for transliteration.
- Typing G with an accent mark, including the breve, which you also saw here on ĕ.
- Typing B with accents, for the dot and line forms.
Frequently asked questions
Why does café I typed not match café in a search box?
The two versions were likely built differently, one as the single character é (U+00E9), the other as e plus a combining accent. They look the same but store as different bytes, so an exact-match search treats them as different words. Retyping both with the same method, or letting the system normalise to NFC, fixes it.
What’s the difference between Alt+0233 and Alt+0233?
The leading zero switches character tables. Alt+0233 reads from Windows-1252 and gives é.
Alt+0233 reads from your machine’s OEM code page and gives something else entirely, Θ on a US machine, Ú on many UK, Irish, Canadian and Australian ones. Use the zero for reliable results.
Why don’t the macron and ogonek versions appear when I long-press E on my phone?
The long-press menu only shows the accents common to your keyboard’s languages, usually the four main ones plus a couple more. For ē, ĕ or ě, copy the character from the widget at the top of this page, or add a text replacement shortcut for the ones you use.
How do I type a capital É without leaving Caps Lock on?
On Windows use Alt+0201 directly. On Mac, do the acute dead key (Option+E) and hold Shift when you press the final E. Both give É without touching Caps Lock.
My accented E shows as a box in a PDF or design file. Why?
The embedded font doesn’t include that glyph. It’s common with the rarer marks (macron, ogonek, caron) in decorative or subset fonts. Switch to a font with full Latin Extended coverage such as Noto, Arial, or Times New Roman before exporting.
Can I type accented E in Excel without a formula?
Yes. Windows Alt codes work inside a cell for the four common accents (Alt+0233 for é and so on), and Insert → Symbol covers the rest. Use =UNICHAR() only when you want a formula-driven value or need one of the codes with no Alt shortcut.
Is é the same as è if I’m just writing an email?
No. The acute é and grave è are different letters and change meaning in French and other languages. If you’re writing a name or a loanword, match the exact accent the original uses rather than picking whichever is easier to type.