How to type Hungarian accented letters on iPhone
Hungarian adds nine accented vowels to the Latin alphabet. Seven of them hide behind the same press-and-hold gesture used for é and ñ on the English keyboard — the last two, ő and ű, do not, because the double-acute mark they carry belongs to no other keyboard’s accent set.
Hungarian writes fourteen vowel letters where English writes five, and nine of those carry a mark the English keyboard never shows on its keys: á, é, í, ó, ö, ő, ú, ü and ű. None of them is printed anywhere on the iPhone’s default layout, so the practical question is not whether they exist on the keyboard but which ones are hiding behind a gesture and which ones genuinely are not there at all.
Seven of the nine are already a hold away
Press and hold a letter on the standard English iPhone keyboard and a small row of accented variants pops up — the same gesture that reaches é or ñ. Hold the base vowel, slide to the one you want, lift your finger. It happens to cover seven of the nine Hungarian vowels:
- a → á
- e → é
- i → í
- o → ó and ö (along with ô ò œ ø ō õ)
- u → ú and ü (along with û ù ū)
That is five base keys reaching seven Hungarian letters, since holding o alone gives both ó and ö, and holding u gives both ú and ü in the same row. For a Hungarian name or a single borrowed word inside an English message, this is already enough.
The two that are not: ő and ű
Hold o on the English keyboard and the row is ó ö ô ò œ ø ō õ — no ő. Hold u and it is ú ü û ù ū — no ű. This is not a matter of holding longer or sliding at a different angle. The mark on ő and ű is a double acute accent, two short strokes rather than one, and it is specific to Hungarian — no other keyboard’s accent set carries it because almost no other language uses it, so there is nowhere on the English keyboard for it to be hiding.
Add the Hungarian keyboard for all nine
The reliable way to reach every one of the nine, without guessing which base letter might cover it, is to add the Hungarian keyboard itself:
- Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards.
- Tap “Add New Keyboard…” and choose Hungarian from the list.
- The Hungarian keyboard joins your keyboard list. Switch to it with a tap or a hold on the globe key 🌐, the same gesture used to move between any two keyboards on iPhone.
A keyboard built for Hungarian gives ő and ű their own physical keys instead of leaving them to a hold gesture that was never built to carry them, and it does the same for the other seven — once you are on the Hungarian keyboard, all nine behave like ordinary letters rather than a special case to remember.
Why the marks are not decoration
The acute accent on á, é, í, ó and ú marks vowel length, and length changes meaning in Hungarian the way a different letter would — kor (era) and kór (illness) are told apart by nothing else. Ö and ü are separate front-rounded vowels, not stylised versions of o and u; they sound closer to German ö and ü than to any English vowel, and swapping one for its plain counterpart changes the word, not just the accent. Ő and ű then combine both ideas into one mark: they are the long versions of ö and ü, and Hungarian spelling stacks two acute strokes over the letter rather than trying to combine an umlaut with an acute accent, which is why the double-acute exists as its own character at all.
What happens to autocorrect
Each iOS keyboard carries its own dictionary, and switching keyboards switches the whole autocorrect and prediction stack with it. Type Hungarian on the English keyboard, even reaching seven of the nine letters correctly with the hold gesture, and autocorrect is still checking against an English word list — it will flag or mangle ordinary Hungarian words the entire way through. Switching to the actual Hungarian keyboard hands autocorrect and prediction a Hungarian dictionary along with the layout, which matters more than reaching ő and ű once you are writing more than a word or two.
Where Kibo fits
Hungarian is one of the 30 typing languages built into Kibo, inside a single keyboard rather than a separate iOS keyboard to add and switch between. Turn it on and a tap or hold on the globe key reaches it directly, with all nine Hungarian vowels on their own keys and Hungarian-aware autocorrect rather than the seven-letter subset the English keyboard happens to expose. Typing in Hungarian, like any language, needs no Full Access — that switch in Kibo is read only by the Copy word, Copy line and Paste buttons on the toolbar. Kibo is free to download.
Frequently asked questions
Can I type ő or ű by holding o or u for longer on iPhone?
No. The length you hold does not change which row appears — holding o always shows ó ö ô ò œ ø ō õ and holding u always shows ú ü û ù ū, on the English keyboard, regardless of how long you wait. The double-acute mark on ő and ű is not part of that set at all.
Why does Hungarian have a mark that looks like two accents stacked together?
Ő and ű are the long versions of ö and ü. Hungarian spelling needed a way to show both “front-rounded vowel” and “long” at once, and rather than stacking an umlaut on top of an acute accent, it uses a double-acute stroke as its own mark — one found in Hungarian and almost nowhere else.
Do I need to add a separate Hungarian keyboard if I use Kibo?
No. Kibo includes Hungarian among its 30 typing languages inside one keyboard, so switching to it is a tap or hold on the globe key rather than a separate keyboard to add in Settings.
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.