How to Better Write French on American Keyboards

I often use computers whose keyboards do not provide direct input of French characters such as accents, dieresis, cedilla, etc. Therefore, I have to make the necessary combinations in order to get the right results. Following that process, I find it helpful to share with you a collection of these characters, the most commonly used when writing French.

Photo Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Hasloo

If you are looking for a reference that gives you the list of the most commonly French characters that require accentuations in both capital and lowercase letters, this blog post has all you need to make these characters when working on a Windows computer. It is a process that will help you save time and better focus on your work.

Spelling is respect; it is a kind of politeness.”

— Émile Chartier, known as Alain

One thing that will help you understand this process is the fact of holding down the Alt key and typing the right number from the numeric keys of the right part of your main Windows keyboard, which must be unlocked in order to proceed. The result, the right letter appears once you finished typing the number and took your finger off the Alt key. It is just simple!

1. Capital letters:

Alt + 0192 make À

Alt + 0194 make Â

Alt + 0198 make Æ

Alt + 0200 make È

Alt + 0201 make É

Alt + 0202 make Ê

Alt + 0203 make Ë

Alt + 0206 make Î

Alt + 0207 make Ï

Alt + 0212 make Ô

Alt + 0140 make Œ

Alt + 0217 make Ù

Alt + 0219 make Û

Alt + 0220 make Ü

Alt + 0199 make Ç

2. Lowercase letters:

Alt + 131 make â

Alt + 133 make à

Alt + 0230 make æ

Alt + 130 make é

Alt + 138 make è

Alt + 136 make ê

Alt + 137 make ë

Alt + 140 make î

Alt + 139 make ï

Alt + 147 make ô

Alt + 0156 make œ

Alt + 150 make û

Alt + 151 make ù

Alt + 0252 make ü

Alt + 135 make ç

3. Guillemets:

Alt + 174 make «

Alt + 175 make »

4. Symbols:

Alt + 248 make °

Alt + 124 make |

Alt + 0188 make ¼

Alt + 0189 make ½

Alt + 0190 make ¾

Alt + 0128 make €

Alt + 0162 make ¢

Alt + 0169 make ©

Alt + 0174 make ®

Alt + 0153 make ™

This blog post remains available to you; you can come back and check it any time, and particularly retain the part that you use frequently. You can also print it for your next work on a Windows computer.

Question: Do you have a letter that you usually leave without accent, lack of access to the right combination when writing French on an American keyboard? You can leave your comment by clicking here.