Looking to type accented letters on your Mac such as ‘é’ and ‘è’? Find out here how to type an accented letter ‘E’ on a Mac the easy and the fast way, and how to find all accented e’s.
First, If They Do Not Jump, Help Them Along
If the diligently cut pieces of meat, vegetables and seafood do not jump around the very hot pan and very little oil on their own, do help them along: whisk the pan (or employ a spatula).
It is important for the everything to stay hot and crucial for the food to keep moving so it is deliciously browned all around.
This is a cooking technique named after the French (and Latin) word for jumping, after all, and only true with the é of sautéing:
How to Type an Accented Letter ‘E’ ( é, è,… ) on a Mac
Press and Hold for É
Time needed: 1 minute
To insert an accented letter ‘e’ (é) on a Mac using any Mac keyboard and keyboard layout:
- Press and hold the key E.
Upper case: For an uppercase accented e, press and hold Shift E.
- Now press 1 for é (e with acute accent) and 2 for è (e with grave accent).
Arrow alternative: You can also use the right and left arrow keys (←︎ →︎) to navigate the alternatives, then press Enter to insert é or è once it is highlighted.
Mousing around: Using the mouse or trackpad, you can also click the accented e to insert it.
Other diacritics: You can also enter a circumflex as well as an overdot and umlaut dots using the menu.
Not in the menu: For letters not in the menu, you can use Character Viewer; see below.
Using Dead Keys for Accented Characters
To type an accented e using a Mac’s dead keys for accents:
- Press Option E for the acute accent
´or Option ` for the grave accent`.
Circumflex: Press Option I for the circumflex^.
Keyboard layouts: These key combinations work for the US-English keyboard layout; for other keyboards, you can use the Mac Keyboard Viewer to look for the corresponding keys (look for ´, ` and ^, try pressing Option if they are not accessible without the modifier key) - Press E immediately afterwards.
Using Mac Character Viewer to Find the ‘E’ with Accents
To find accented letters for inserting in text with the Mac Character Viewer:
- Position the text cursor where you want to insert the accented character.
- Select Edit | Emoji & Symbols from the menu.
Mac keyboard shortcut: Press Fn E or 🌐︎ to get the emoji panel or character viewer. - Type
letter ein the search field.
Character Viewer: This works in both the emoji panel and Character Viewer.
Accent search: You can search for specific accents, of course, such ase circumflexto narrow search results. - Choose from the letter e’s accented versions for inserting.
How to Type an Accented Letter ‘E’ ( é, è,… ) on a Mac: FAQ
Can I also copy and paste the accented e characters?
Yes.
Use the table below to copy the characters for pasting anywhere.
E accent grave È | |
e accent grave è | |
E accent acute É | |
e accent acute é | |
E accent circumflex Ê | |
e accent circumflex ê | |
E accent caron Ě | |
e accent caron ě | |
E accent double grave Ȅ | |
e accent double grave ȅ |
(How to type an accented letter E on a Mac tested with macOS Sonoma 14.2–14.5; first published February 2024, last updated July 2024)