How to type accented letters on iPhone
Press and hold most letter keys on the default iPhone keyboard and a row of accented options pops up. How that gesture works, which letters it covers, the hardware-keyboard shortcut, and the faster route for a language you type often.
Writing a name like José, or a word like café, façade or Zürich, looks like a problem the moment you check the standard English iPhone keyboard for the accent. There is no é key, no ñ key, nothing marked for it anywhere on the keys you can see. The letters are there anyway. They are one gesture away rather than a key of their own.
The press-and-hold menu
Every accented letter sits on top of a plain one, and the plain one is what you hold down to reach it.
- Find the base letter. é comes from holding e, ñ from holding n, ü from holding u, ç from holding c.
- Press and hold that key instead of tapping it. After a short beat, a small row of variants pops up just above it — for e, that includes è, é, ê and ë.
- Without lifting your finger, slide it left or right along the row. Each character highlights in turn as your finger passes over it.
- Lift your finger over the one you want. That character is what lands on the screen, in place of the plain letter.
If you slide off the end of the row and lift your finger there, nothing gets inserted — a clean way to back out if you held the wrong key by mistake, without deleting anything.
Which letters have variants
The exact row varies a little by iOS version and region settings, but the base letters that open one, and the accented letters that show up on them, cover essentially every diacritic used across Western European languages:
- a → à á â ä æ ã å ā
- c → ç ć č
- e → è é ê ë ē
- i → î ï í ī ì
- n → ñ ń
- o → ô ö ò ó œ ø ō õ
- s → ß ś š
- u → û ü ù ú ū
- y → ÿ
- z → ź ž ż
Typing accents with a hardware keyboard
Connect a Bluetooth or Smart/Magic Keyboard to an iPhone and there is no screen to press and hold, but the accent is still reachable. iOS carries over the same Option-key dead-key sequences long-time Mac typists already know: press and release Option (labelled Alt on non-Apple Bluetooth keyboards), then the key for the accent, then the letter. Option, then e, then e again, gives é. Option, then n, then n again, gives ñ. Option, then u, then u again, gives ü. The sequence is the same one a Mac uses, not a separate iOS-specific shortcut to memorise.
A faster way for a language you type often
Holding a key and sliding to the right option costs a second or two each time, which barely registers for an occasional name or word. If you are writing in Spanish, French or German regularly, though, that second or two adds up across a whole message, and there is a faster route: switch to that language’s own keyboard layout, where the accent is already sitting on a key rather than hidden behind a hold. A Spanish keyboard puts ñ on its own key next to L. A French keyboard in AZERTY layout puts é, è, ç and à on the top row as ordinary keys, no holding required for any of them.
Adding that keyboard and switching to it with the globe key is covered in the guide on typing in two languages on one iPhone — the short version is Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard, then a tap or a hold on the globe key 🌐 to reach it.
Where Kibo fits
Kibo carries 30 typing languages inside a single keyboard rather than asking you to add a separate iOS keyboard for each one. A tap on the globe key cycles through just the languages you have turned on, with a brief on-screen label naming the one you have landed on in its own name. Switching to the right language puts you on that language’s own layout instead of reaching for the press-and-hold menu on every accented letter you type. Full Access stays off for all of it — the switch is read only by the Copy word, Copy line and Paste buttons on the keyboard toolbar.
Frequently asked questions
Why does holding a letter key do nothing on some keyboards?
A keyboard extension draws every key itself rather than inheriting behaviour from iOS, so the press-and-hold accent menu is something Apple’s own keyboard specifically implements, not a system-wide feature every keyboard gets automatically. Whether a given keyboard shows one at all depends on that keyboard.
Can I type accented letters with a Bluetooth or hardware keyboard?
Yes. Press and release Option (Alt on a non-Apple Bluetooth keyboard), then the accent’s key, then the letter — the same dead-key sequence long used on a Mac. Option, e, e gives é; Option, n, n gives ñ.
Is there a quicker way than holding the key every time?
If you type a language with accents regularly, switch to that language’s own keyboard layout instead. The accented letters that were behind a hold on the English keyboard, like ñ or é, sit on their own key there, so no hold is needed.
Try it on your own keyboard
Kibo is a free custom keyboard for iPhone with real mechanical key sounds, a wardrobe of themes and RGB backlight effects. No account, no ads, and it works with Full Access left off.