How to type Chinese Pinyin letters ā á ǎ à ē é

Pinyin writes the four Mandarin tones with the macron, acute, caron and grave on the vowel, plus ü for the front rounded vowel.

How to type Chinese Pinyin letters on Windows

Alt codes

Hold Alt, type the code on the numeric keypad with Num Lock on, then release Alt. The number row above the letters does not work.

ā ǎ ē ě ī ǐ ō ǒ ū ǔ ǖ ǘ ǚ ǜ have no classic Alt code. Use the layout, the symbol panel, or Alt+X in Word for those.

Add the Chinese Pinyin keyboard layout

Go to Settings → Time & Language → Language & region, add Chinese Pinyin (or open Options under your language and add a keyboard), and choose Chinese (Simplified) Microsoft Pinyin. Switch layouts with Win+Space. Pinyin with tone marks is not typed on a layout. Enable the Chinese (Pinyin) input method to write characters, or use the codes and copy tiles here for the toned letters ā á ǎ à.

US-International dead keys

If you would rather keep a US layout, add United States-International. Press the accent key, release it, then press the letter:

• ' then the letter for the acute (gives á)
• ` then the letter for the grave (gives à)
• Shift+' (") then the letter for the umlaut (gives ü)
• AltGr+A gives á directly
• AltGr+E gives é directly
• AltGr+I gives í directly
• AltGr+O gives ó directly
• AltGr+U gives ú directly
• AltGr+Y gives ü directly

Emoji and symbol panel

Press Win+., open the Symbols tab (Ω) and choose Latin symbols, or search the letter's name. Works in every app and needs no numpad.

macOS has an ABC Extended layout that types tone marks with Option+A (macron), Option+E (acute), Option+V (caron) and Option+` (grave). On Windows the Chinese (Simplified) IME can output pinyin with tones.

How to type Chinese Pinyin letters on a Mac

Press and hold

Hold a letter key for a second and a menu of accented forms appears; press the number under the one you want. On the English keyboard this covers ā á à ē é è ī í ì ō ó ò ū ú ù ü, but not ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ ǖ ǘ ǚ ǜ.

• Hold A for à á â ä æ ã å ā
• Hold E for è é ê ë ē ė ę
• Hold I for î ï í ī į ì
• Hold O for ô ö ò ó œ ø ō õ
• Hold U for û ü ù ú ū

Option dead keys

Press the Option combination, release it, then press the letter:

• Option+E, A gives á
• Option+`, A gives à
• Option+E, E gives é
• Option+`, E gives è
• Option+E, I gives í
• Option+`, I gives ì
• Option+E, O gives ó
• Option+`, O gives ò
• Option+E, U gives ú
• Option+`, U gives ù
• Option+U, U gives ü

The macron and caron are not on the US layout. Add ABC Extended (System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources), which adds dead keys: Option+A for the macron, Option+V for the caron.

Chinese Pinyin input source and Character Viewer

For regular Chinese Pinyin typing add ABC Extended under System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources and switch with Control+Space. For a one-off letter, press Control+⌘+Space to open the Character Viewer, search the letter's name and double-click it.

ǚ, ǜ, ǘ and ǖ combine the umlaut with a tone mark and are single Unicode characters.

How to type Chinese Pinyin letters on iPhone, iPad and Android

1. Press and hold the base letter (A, E, I, O, U).
2. A pop-up shows the accented forms, including ā á à ē é.
3. Slide your finger onto the one you want and release. Gboard on Android works the same way.

To add the keyboard on iPhone go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard → Pinyin (10-key or QWERTY) and switch with the globe key. On Android open Gboard → Settings → Languages → Add keyboard → Pinyin (Gboard). For a letter you type often, save a shortcut under Text Replacement (iPhone) or the Personal dictionary (Gboard).

Word, Excel and Google Docs

Microsoft Word

Word has built-in accent shortcuts. Press the combination, release it, then type the letter:

• Ctrl+', a gives á
• Ctrl+`, a gives à
• Ctrl+', e gives é
• Ctrl+`, e gives è
• Ctrl+', i gives í
• Ctrl+`, i gives ì
• Ctrl+', o gives ó
• Ctrl+`, o gives ò
• Ctrl+', u gives ú
• Ctrl+`, u gives ù
• Ctrl+Shift+:, u gives ü

For any letter, type its Unicode hex code and press Alt+X: 0101 → ā, 00E1 → á, 01CE → ǎ, 00E0 → à, and so on (the table above has every code). Insert → Symbol → More Symbols lists them under Latin-1 Supplement and Latin Extended-A. With AutoCorrect (File → Options → Proofing) you can make Word replace a code of your choosing, such as a~, with ā as you type.

Excel and Google Sheets

Alt codes and paste work in cells. For a formula, use =UNICHAR(257) in Excel or =CHAR(257) in Google Sheets to get ā.

Google Docs

Use Insert → Special characters and search the letter's name, or draw it in the sketch box. Docs accepts Alt codes on Windows and Option dead keys on a Mac, and Tools → Preferences → Substitutions can auto-replace a short code with the letter.

Frequently asked questions