Typing Pinyin with Tone Marks on Mac OS. You've added the ABC - Extended keyboard, and selected it as your input method. Now you're ready to type tones marks over your vowels. The way the system works, you first give the computer the command for the tone, and then type the vowel that the tone will be over. Here are the commands for each tone. The process of typing accents on a computer used to be somewhat inconvenient, with key combinations required to apply the desired accent. Windows even used to make users type in numerical combinations if they wanted to apply an accent. Since then things have gotten easier, and macOS is especially friendly when it comes to typing accents.
If you’re typing in languages other than English, chances are you have to deal with accents. German, Italian, Spanish, and other languages use a bunch of letters with diacritical marks — yeah, those weird curls on top of regular letters. So how to type French accents on Mac? What to do if you need to type a message to your Portuguese friend quickly?
Today, I’ll share some tips and tricks on how to do accents on Mac. Each method is useful in different ways: from being the best for working at speed to typing characters without touching the keyboard at all. We’ll also see how to optimize your system performance by getting rid of unnecessary language files.
How to add accents on Mac in 3 different ways
There are three quick methods of how you can enter letters with accent marks. Let's see each one in detail.
Method 1. Use the accent menu
If you’re using the latest macOS versions, you can easily type accented letters with a long press on a specific key. To display the accent menu:
- Press and hold a letter on the keyboard until its alternative characters appear. The menu doesn’t pop up if no extra characters are available for the key you’re holding.
- Click on the character to pick it from the list — for example, é.
You can also hit the number key associated with the accented character you want to type. Another way is to use the left/right arrow keys. Once you select the needed character, tap the Space bar.
If you want to close the menu without typing any letter, press Esc (escape).
Although the accent menu is available in major apps, web browsers, and text editors, there are still some environments that don’t support it.
If you want to learn how to type Italian accents on Mac, this method is the way to go. It sticks to the most-used characters but doesn’t work so well for more exotic ones. The best part is that you don’t have to keep tons of key combos in your mind.
Method 2. Use dead keys
If you find yourself regularly using accented characters, then learning some useful key combos can save you tons of time. Here’s how shortcuts work:
- Hold Option as a modifier key and press a key that corresponds to a specific diacritical mark.
- When the accent preview appears, release the keys and type the letter you want to apply the accent to.
Wondering how to type Spanish accents on Mac? To get ñ, for example, you need to hold down Option-N, release this combination and then press N again. To get the capital letter Ñ, add Shift: Option–N, Shift–N. As simple as that – now you can order piñatas online!
The dead keys may seem tricky at first, but if you use them for a while, they’ll feel more natural. To see where all possible accents are located on your keyboard layout, check out the Keyboard Viewer:
- Go to the Input menu on the right side of the menu bar.
- Choose Show Keyboard Viewer to open a new window with the keyboard layout. It’ll show the keyboard depending on the current input source you use.
- Hold the Option key to highlight the dead keys — they’re outlined in orange. Here’s an example of the standard QWERTY (English) keyboard.
If you can’t find the ‘Show Keyboard Viewer’ command in the Input menu, select System Preferences from the Apple menu, and click the Keyboard icon. Then, go to the Keyboard tab and check ‘Show keyboard and emoji viewers in the menu bar’.
Here’s how to put accents on letters on Mac using the typical English keyboard. These shortcuts work perfectly for most Latin-script languages, without the need to switch between input sources.
- Acute (á, é, í, ó, ú, ý): Option–E, the letter
- Circumflex (â, ê, î, ô, û): Option–I, the letter
- Tilde (ã, õ, ñ): Option–N, the letter
- Umlaut and dieresis (ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ): Option–U, the letter
- Grave (à, è, ì, ò, ù): Option–`(grave), the letter
- Cedilla (ç): Option–C
- OE Ligature (œ): Option–Q
- Æ Ligature (æ): Option–’ (apostrophe)
- å: Option–A
- ø: Option–O
- ß: Option–S
- ¿: Shift–Option–?
- ¡: Option–1
Method 3. Character Viewer
Looking for a way how to type Czech accents on Mac? Character Viewer comes especially in handy. While this method is widely used to add emoji into messages, it’s far more than just entering funny faces and symbols. Here’s how to use it:
- Put the insertion point in the text where you want the character to appear.
- Press Command-Control-Space to launch the Character Viewer. Or choose Show Emoji & Symbols in the Input menu if you’ve already set the option to show this command there.
- Click the expand button in the upper-right corner to display more categories.
- Select Latin on the left sidebar to open a list of accented characters.
- Double-click the one you want to insert into the document. That’s all!
Bonus tip: How to get rid of extra language files
Most of the apps on your Mac are developed to run on the different markets around the words. That means each of these applications comes with dozens of language files, also known as localizations used to display the app on the user’s native language.
Since you don’t speak most of these languages, such files just clutter your Mac. Luckily, you can safely remove them. Instead of trashing useless localizations manually for every single app, use the software I've been using for a while — CleanMyMac X.
Even though there are no magic buttons in life, its Smart Scan feature does a lot. It cleans up your Mac from unneeded files, detects potential threats, and shows how you can speed up your system. With a few clicks, CleanMyMac X will cut the extra weight and keep your Mac’s performance on top. Here’s how to use it:
- Download CleanMyMac X for free.
- Launch the app and hit Scan.
- When the scan is over, click Run.
If you want to edit the list of localizations before removal manually, click Review Details to proceed to the System Junk module. Once done, go back to the summary and press Run.
CleanMyMac X can quickly delete junk clusters from your Mac. Download it to free up your disk space for more important files.
Pinyin - 拼音 (pīn yīn) is not just a tool for mastering Mandarin Chinese pronunciation: many students also find writing out pinyin is a great way to memorize the correct tones for new vocabulary.
(*TIP: If you've never heard of pinyin, first check out this post - 'Pinyin: A Beginner's Guide'.)
So how exactly do you type pinyin with the correct tones? Some people simply stick the tone number at the end of the pinyin, for example ni3 hao3. It does the trick, but it doesn't quite look as nice as those pretty tones: nǐ hǎo.
Other people just copy and from Google Translate. But that's a slow process and does nothing to help you learn the correct tones!
It's Yoyo Chinese to the rescue! This post gives you step-by-step instructions for typing pinyin with beautiful tone marks on your Windows or Mac operating system.
This post is NOT about typing Chinese characters! To learn how to type Chinese characters, check out this free lesson from our Chinese Character Course:
And for step-by-step instructions to set up a Chinese input keyboard on your device, click here.
Without further ado, read on to learn how to type pinyin with tone marks on your computer!
• Windows
• Mac OS
Windows
Typing Accents For Mac Os
Important Update: Windows Settings Have Changed - click HERE for the 2020 Updates for Installation of the PinyinTones Software on Windows
There are some third party apps and plug ins you can download to type pinyin with tones. But if you're looking to avoid installing extra stuff on your computer, and want to use the tools built into Windows, we'll show you how here!
And the REALLY nice thing about using the built in language tools in Windows is that you don't have to remember which letter the tone mark is over - it does it for you!
To type pinyin in Windows, you need to first add the Japanese language, and then the PinyinTones keyboard.
You might be thinking, 'The 'Japanese language'? I'm here to type Chinese!' Just trust us on this one!
Please Note: If you are unable to set up the “PinyinTones” directly through your Windows settings for any reason, you can also just visit their websiteand download it there!
Typing Accents Mac
Add the Japanese Language and the PinyinTones keyboard on Windows
![Typing accents on keyboard Typing accents on keyboard](/uploads/1/1/8/9/118991098/799568989.gif)
1: Go to 'Settings' by selecting it from the main menu:
2. Click 'Time & Language':
3. Click on “Region & language” from the menu on the left:
4. Click “Add a language”:
5. Search for 'Japanese'. First click on “Japanese”, then click “next” below:
6. Uncheck the box that says, “Set as my Windows display language”. *THIS STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT! You don't want to change your display language to Japanese:
![Typing Typing](/uploads/1/1/8/9/118991098/957541068.jpg)
7. Click 'Install'.
8. In the 'Language options' menu for the Japanese Language you just insalled, click “Add a keyboard”:
9. Select “PinyinTones”:
Switching to the PinyinTones keyboard on Windows
1. Click the Language tab on task bar and select “JP Japanese (Japan)”:
2. Click “PinyinTones”:
Typing Pinyin with Tone Marks on Windows
Now that you've got the PinyinTones keyboard selected, you can then type the letters of the pinyin, followed by the number for the tone.
For example, to type the pinyin for 好, you simply type the pinyin ‘hao’, then the number “3” (for the tone), and then click “space”: hǎo
It's great practice, because you have to remember the correct tone, but it's a lot easier than having to also remember where the tone mark goes. The PinyinTones keyboard takes care of it for you!
Mac OS (Apple computers and laptops)
We're going to be the first to admit it, typing pinyin with tone marks on Mac OS is a little trickier than on Windows.
Probably the biggest difference is that you need to remember which vowel has the tone mark. While that might seem like a big drawback at first, if you are typing pinyin to help you memorize tones, it is MUCH more effective practice if you are forced to remember where the tone mark actually goes!
To type pinyin with tone marks on your Mac device, you'll need to do three things:
• Add the 'ABC - Extended' keyboard to your input methods
• Switch your input method to this keyboard
• Type the vowels with the correct tone marks
The 'ABC - Extended' keyboard is the input method you'll need to select when you want to type pinyin with tone marks. On older Mac operating systems, this may also be called the 'U.S. Extended' keyboard.
Here are step-by-step instructions for adding the ABC - Extended keyboard on Mac OS:
1: Open System Preferences from your dock or the Apple menu.
2: Select 'Language & Region':
3: Click 'Keyboard Preferences':
4: Click the + sign to add a new input keyboard:
Typing Accents For Mac Keyboard
5: Scroll down the list on the right to find and select 'ABC - Extended' and click 'Add':
*NOTE: The box that says 'Show input menu in menu bar' should be checked. This will let you see and switch your input method from the menu bar on your Mac.
There are two ways to switch to the the 'ABC - Extended' input method: from the menu bar or with a keyboard shortcut.
To switch from the menu bar, click the icon on the menu bar to bring up the input method dropdown. You can click on 'ABC - Extended' here, and switch it back to your native language when you are done:
Or, to use keyboard shortcuts to switch between your input methods, open your System Preferences again and click 'Keyboard':
Then click 'Shortcuts' from the buttons at the top of the window, and then 'Input Sources' from the list on the left:
If they are not already selected, you can now click the boxes to enable the shortcuts for switching forward or backwards through your list of input methods.
The default shortcuts are ^ (control) + space bar to go forward, and ^ (control) + ⌥ (option) + space bar to go backward through the list.
Typing Pinyin with Tone Marks on Mac OS
You've added the ABC - Extended keyboard, and selected it as your input method. Now you're ready to type tones marks over your vowels.
The way the system works, you first give the computer the command for the tone, and then type the vowel that the tone will be over. Here are the commands for each tone:
• 1st tone: ⌥ (option) + a
• 2nd tone: ⌥ (option) + e
• 3rd tone: ⌥ (option) + v
• 4th tone: ⌥ (option) + ~
So to type a first tone tone mark, click '⌥ (option) + a'. *
NOTE: You click 'a' even if you are putting the tone mark over a different vowel!
The first tone should appear when you are typing the text. Type the correct vowel and it should appear below the tone mark.
Don't forget! When you are typing characters like 女 (nǚ) - woman, or 绿 (lǜ) - green, with the letter/tone 'ǚ', you don't type 'nu' but 'nv'!
Now that you know how to type pinyin with tone marks on your Windows or Mac OS device, try adding it to your practice routine!
Type out vocabulary from our Conversational Courses, or characters you are learning in our Chinese Character Courses, and see if you remember the correct tones!
If you have any questions, other tools and tips you use for typing pinyin, or if you need any help, let us know in the comments below!