The most common C with accent is ç, the c-cedilla. On Windows, hold Alt and type 0231 on the numeric keypad for ç, or 0199 for Ç.
On a Mac, press Option+C for ç. The other forms (ć ĉ ċ č) have no Alt code, so use Word’s Alt+X trick or copy them below.
Click any character above to copy it. If you only need it once, that is faster than any shortcut. If you type these often, the keyboard methods below make it permanent.
Quick reference: every accented C and its code
Two of these ten characters have a real Windows Alt code. The rest do not, so the table lists the Word Alt+X hex value instead.
The Alt-code column is decimal; the Word/Alt+X column is hexadecimal. Do not mix them.
| Char | Name | Unicode | Alt code (decimal) | Word (hex + Alt+X) | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ç | Small c with cedilla | U+00E7 | Alt+0231 | 00E7 then Alt+X | ç |
| ć | Small c with acute | U+0107 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0107 then Alt+X | 0107 then Alt+X | ć |
| ĉ | Small c with circumflex | U+0109 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0109 then Alt+X | 0109 then Alt+X | ĉ |
| ċ | Small c with dot above | U+010B | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 010B then Alt+X | 010B then Alt+X | ċ |
| č | Small c with caron | U+010D | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 010D then Alt+X | 010D then Alt+X | č |
| Ç | Capital C with cedilla | U+00C7 | Alt+0199 | 00C7 then Alt+X | Ç |
| Ć | Capital C with acute | U+0106 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0106 then Alt+X | 0106 then Alt+X | Ć |
| Ĉ | Capital C with circumflex | U+0108 | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 0108 then Alt+X | 0108 then Alt+X | Ĉ |
| Ċ | Capital C with dot above | U+010A | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 010A then Alt+X | 010A then Alt+X | Ċ |
| Č | Capital C with caron | U+010C | No standard Windows Alt code; Word: 010C then Alt+X | 010C then Alt+X | Č |
Which accent is which
Five marks appear in this set, and they sit in different places. The cedilla is the hook that hangs below the C in ç and Ç. The other four sit above the letter.
- Acute (ć) is a single stroke rising to the right.
- Circumflex (ĉ) is a small hat, two strokes meeting at a point.
- Dot above (ċ) is a single dot.
- Caron (č) is a small v, the mirror of the circumflex. It is easy to confuse with the breve, which is a rounded u-shape. The caron has sharp corners.
Uppercase and lowercase are separate characters with their own code points. Ç (U+00C7) is not the same stored value as ç (U+00E7), even though they share the same accent. That is why your keyboard needs a Shift for the capital, and why a search for one will not match the other unless the software folds case.
Windows
For ç and Ç, use the Alt code. Turn on Num Lock, hold the Alt key, and type the number on the numeric keypad (the row of numbers along the top does not work).
- ç → hold Alt, type 0231, release.
- Ç → hold Alt, type 0199, release.
Keep the leading zero. It tells Windows to read the modern Western character table, which is the reliable one. The other eight C characters have no Alt code at all, so reaching for one will only produce the wrong glyph.
For ć ĉ ċ č and their capitals, open Character Map (search for it in the Start menu), find the character, and copy it. If your keyboard has no numeric keypad, the on-screen accent keyboard tool gives you every variant as a button.
Mac
Mac has no Alt codes. For ç, press Option+C directly. For Ç, add Shift: Option+Shift+C.
For the others, hold down the C key for about a second. A small popup shows the accented options, and you press the number under the one you want. To reach the full set including ĉ and ċ, open the Character Viewer with Ctrl+Cmd+Space and search by name, such as “c caron”.
Word, PowerPoint and Outlook
Word has the widest set of options. The fastest is the built-in cedilla shortcut: press Ctrl+, (comma) then c to get ç, or Ctrl+, then Shift+C for Ç.
For any of the ten, type the hex value from the table and press Alt+X. Typing 010d then Alt+X turns into č on the spot. This also works in Outlook and OneNote.
You can also use Insert → Symbol → More Symbols, search by name, and insert. That same Insert → Symbol route works in PowerPoint. The Alt+X shortcut does not work in PowerPoint, so use Insert → Symbol or paste there.
Excel and Google Sheets
Neither Alt+X nor a cedilla shortcut works in a spreadsheet cell. Use the UNICHAR function with the decimal value: =UNICHAR(231) returns ç, and =UNICHAR(269) returns č.
In Excel you can also use Insert → Symbol. Google Sheets has no Insert Symbol menu at all, so UNICHAR, a paste, or typing the character elsewhere and copying it in are your options. If you paste into a cell, press F2 first to enter edit mode.
Google Docs
Go to Insert → Special characters. Type a name like “cedilla” or “caron” in the search box, or draw the accent in the sketch pad, then click the character to insert it.
Docs also autocorrects some patterns and respects your keyboard layout, so a French or Croatian layout types these directly. There is no Alt+X in Google Docs.
iPhone and Android
Both phones use the same trick: press and hold the C key on the on-screen keyboard. A row of accented options pops up, and you slide to ç, ć, č or the others and release.
For the capital, tap Shift first, then hold C. If a variant you need is missing from the popup, the copy buttons near the top of this page work in any app on either phone.
Chromebook
ChromeOS has no Alt codes, and plugging in a USB numpad will not change that. Use Unicode entry instead: press Ctrl+Shift+U, then type the hex value (for example 00e7 for ç), then press Enter or Space.
An underlined u appears while you type to confirm the mode is active. Type the hex only, with no U+ prefix. Some web text fields swallow the shortcut; if that happens, use the launcher symbol picker (Launcher+Shift+Space) or paste.
Notion, Slack, Discord and Canva
None of these has a dedicated accented-letter shortcut. The reliable method in all four is to paste the character from the copy buttons above.
If you type ç or č constantly in one of these apps, set up a text replacement at the operating-system level (Settings → Keyboard on Mac and iPhone, or a text-expansion tool on Windows). Type something like ccc and let it expand to č everywhere, including inside these apps.
HTML and CSS
On the web, use the HTML entity from the table. ç has a named entity, ç; the rest use numeric references such as č for č. Both decimal (č) and hex (č) numeric forms are valid.
In CSS content values, escape with a backslash and the hex code point: "\00e7" for ç. A UTF-8 page can also just contain the literal character with no escaping at all, which is usually the cleanest choice.
Precomposed versus combining accents
Every character in the table is precomposed: one code point holds both the C and its accent. There is a second way to build the same shape, by writing a plain c followed by a combining mark, such as the combining cedilla U+0327.
On screen, c + combining cedilla looks identical to ç. Underneath they are different byte sequences. That mismatch is why two visually identical words can fail to match in a search box, sort in the wrong order, or break a filename or login form.
The fix is Unicode normalization. NFC collapses c + combining mark back into the single precomposed ç; NFD splits it apart.
When a copied č refuses to match a typed one, a normalization mismatch is usually the reason. Prefer the precomposed forms from the table, since they are what most systems expect.
Troubleshooting
The character shows as a box or a question mark. The font lacks that glyph.
Older or decorative fonts often carry ç and Ç but not ĉ, ċ or č. Switch the run of text to a broad font such as Arial, Segoe UI, Times New Roman or Noto Sans, and it will appear.
You got a completely different symbol. An Alt code produced something odd because eight of these letters have no Alt code, or because the leading zero was dropped. Only 0231 (ç) and 0199 (Ç) are valid; for the rest use Alt+X or a paste.
The Alt code does nothing. You need the numeric keypad with Num Lock on. Laptops without a keypad cannot enter Alt codes, so use Character Map, the press-and-hold method, or the copy buttons above.
You meant caron but typed breve. č (caron) has a sharp v; the breve is a rounded u.
They are different letters. Insert by name (“c caron”) in Word or Google Docs to be sure you have the right one.
Where these letters turn up
ç appears in French and Portuguese words and in Turkish. The caron form č shows up in Croatian, Czech and other Slavic names, alongside ć.
The dot-above ċ is used in Maltese, and the circumflex ĉ in Esperanto. You will meet them most often in personal names, place names and loanwords that keep their original spelling.
Related accented letters
The letter C is not the only consonant that carries these marks. A few neighbours use the same acute, caron and circumflex, which makes them easy to mix up:
- B with accent covers the rarer marked B forms and how they differ from C.
- Typing D with an accent includes đ and ď, whose caron looks like č’s.
- F with accents handles the same code and Alt+X routes for another consonant.
- A with an accent mark and E with accent cover the vowels that share the acute and circumflex you used here.
For the full picture across every letter, the complete guide to typing accented letters is the place to start, and you can browse the whole accented-letter guides collection for one letter at a time.
Frequently asked questions
Why does ç work with an Alt code but č does not?
ç and Ç sit in the older Windows-1252 character set, which is what the Alt-code system reads from. č, ć, ĉ and ċ live outside it, so Windows never assigned them a numeric Alt code. Use the Word Alt+X hex method or a paste for those.
Is the cedilla on ç the same mark as on other letters?
Yes, the cedilla is a reusable hook that also attaches to other letters, but each combination is a separate Unicode character. Copying the hook alone will not turn a plain c into ç reliably, so use the precomposed ç from the table.
My typed č will not match a name in a database. Why?
The two versions are almost certainly stored differently: one precomposed (single code point) and one as c plus a combining caron. They look identical but are different bytes. Normalize both to NFC before comparing, or paste the precomposed č from the table above.
How do I type a capital accented C?
On Windows use Alt+0199 for Ç. On Mac press Option+Shift+C for Ç. For the others, add Shift before the press-and-hold on a phone, or type the capital’s hex value (such as 010C) then Alt+X in Word.
Which font should I use so every variant displays?
Pick a wide Unicode font: Segoe UI, Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri or any Noto family. These carry all ten characters. Very old system fonts and decorative display fonts often stop at ç and Ç.
Can I type these on a laptop without a numeric keypad?
Yes. Alt codes need the keypad, but nothing else does. Use the copy buttons at the top of this page, Mac’s Option shortcuts, Word’s Alt+X, the phone press-and-hold, or Chromebook’s Ctrl+Shift+U entry instead.
What is the difference between the caron and the circumflex on C?
The circumflex (ĉ) points up like a hat; the caron (č) points down like a small v. They are opposite shapes and separate characters with different code points, U+0109 and U+010D. Insert by name to avoid picking the wrong one.