Enter characters with diacritical marks while using an external keyboard on iPad

If the external keyboard you use with iPad doesn’t include accents and other diacritical marks for the language you’re typing, you can use an Option key modifier or the onscreen keyboard to enter those marks.

Use the Option key to enter diacritical marks

To enter a character with a diacritical mark, you can press the Option key to select a mark while using a supported language keyboard.

Do one of the following:
- Add a language keyboard that supports diacritical marks, then in an app, switch to that language keyboard (see Add or change keyboards on iPad).
  For example, add the Spanish (Mexico) keyboard, then in an app, use on Magic Keyboard for iPad to select Español (México).
- Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Hardware Keyboard, then choose an alternative keyboard layout that supports diacritical marks.
  For example, if you have the English (US) language keyboard, tap English (US), then choose U.S. International — PC or ABC — Extended.
In an app, press and hold the Option key, then press a key that enters a diacritical mark.
For example, the Spanish (Mexico) keyboard and the U.S. International — PC alternative layout support these diacritical marks:
- Acute accent (for example, é): Option-e.
- Grave accent (for example, è): Option-`.
- Tilde (for example, ñ): Option-n.
- Diaeresis or umlaut (for example, ü): Option-u.
- Circumflex (for example, ê:) Option-i.
Press the letter.
For example, to enter ñ using the Spanish (Mexico) keyboard or the U.S. International — PC alternative layout, press Option-n, then type an n.

Note: The ABC - Extended alternative layout also allows you to enter tone marks for typing Mandarin Chinese in Pinyin orthography. For example, to type ǚ in lǚxíng (“travel”), press Option-v, then type a v. In addition, the ABC - Extended layout allows you to type diacritical marks and letters from several different European languages, such as Czech, French, German, Hungarian, and Polish.

Use the onscreen keyboard to enter diacritical marks

To show the onscreen keyboard, tap in the Shortcuts bar (at the bottom of the screen), then tap .
On the onscreen keyboard, touch and hold the letter, number, or symbol on the keyboard that’s related to the character you want.
For example, to enter é, touch and hold the e key.
Slide your finger to choose a variant.
To hide the onscreen keyboard when you’re finished, tap .

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iPad User Guide

Enter characters with diacritical marks while using an external keyboard on iPad

Use the Option key to enter diacritical marks

Use the onscreen keyboard to enter diacritical marks