How to Type Umlaut Letters (ä, ö, ü, ë, ï, ÿ) on Any Keyboard

Umlaut letters — vowels topped with two dots — appear across dozens of languages and serve distinct phonetic and grammatical purposes in each. From the ä, ö, and ü essential to German, to the ë of Dutch and Albanian, to the ÿ that appears in French and Welsh, this guide covers every way to type every umlaut letter on any device and platform.

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What Is an Umlaut?

The word umlaut comes from German — um (around, transformation) + Laut (sound) — and refers both to the diacritic mark itself (the two dots above a vowel) and to the phonological process it represents. The two dots signal a shift in vowel sound, typically moving the point of articulation from the back of the mouth toward the front.

In strict typographic terminology, the two-dot diacritic has two distinct names depending on its function:

Term	Function	Example
Umlaut	Marks a phonological vowel shift	German ä, ö, ü
Diaeresis (or trema)	Marks two adjacent vowels as separately pronounced	French Noël, English naïve

Despite the technical distinction, both marks look identical — two dots above a vowel — and are encoded as the same Unicode characters. In everyday usage, both terms are widely used interchangeably, and this guide uses umlaut as the general term for both functions.

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The Complete List of Umlaut Letters

Symbol	Name	Unicode	Languages
Ä / ä	A with umlaut	U+00C4 / U+00E4	German, Swedish, Finnish, Estonian, Slovak
Ë / ë	E with umlaut	U+00CB / U+00EB	French, Dutch, Albanian, Afrikaans, Kurdish
Ï / ï	I with umlaut	U+00CF / U+00EF	French, Dutch, Afrikaans, Welsh
Ö / ö	O with umlaut	U+00D6 / U+00F6	German, Swedish, Finnish, Turkish, Hungarian
Ü / ü	U with umlaut	U+00DC / U+00FC	German, Swedish, Finnish, Turkish, Kurdish
Ÿ / ÿ	Y with umlaut	U+0178 / U+00FF	French, Welsh, Old English
Ḧ / ḧ	H with umlaut	U+1E26 / U+1E27	Kurdish (Kurmanji)
Ẅ / ẅ	W with umlaut	U+1E84 / U+1E85	Welsh
Ẍ / ẍ	X with umlaut	U+1E8C / U+1E8D	Kurdish

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How Umlauts Change Meaning

In German especially, the umlaut is never optional — dropping it changes the word entirely:

With Umlaut	Meaning	Without Umlaut	Meaning
Mädchen	girl	Madchen	not a word
schön	beautiful	schon	already
über	over / above	uber	not standard German
Hölle	hell	Holle	a proper name
Bäcker	baker	Backer	not a word
müde	tired	Mude	not a word
Äpfel	apples	Apfel	apple (singular)
Öl	oil	Ol	not a word
kühl	cool	Kuhl	not a word

The umlaut is equally non-optional in Swedish, Finnish, Turkish, and other languages where it marks a distinct phoneme.

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How to Type Umlaut Letters on Windows

Alt Codes (Numpad)

Make sure Num Lock is on, hold Alt, type the code on the numeric keypad, then release Alt.

Lowercase umlaut letters

Character	Name	Alt Code
ä	A with umlaut	Alt + 132
ë	E with umlaut	Alt + 137
ï	I with umlaut	Alt + 139
ö	O with umlaut	Alt + 148
ü	U with umlaut	Alt + 129
ÿ	Y with umlaut	Alt + 152

Uppercase umlaut letters

Character	Name	Alt Code
Ä	A with umlaut	Alt + 142
Ë	E with umlaut	Alt + 0203
Ï	I with umlaut	Alt + 0207
Ö	O with umlaut	Alt + 153
Ü	U with umlaut	Alt + 154
Ÿ	Y with umlaut	Alt + 0159

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Unicode Input (Microsoft Word)

Type the Unicode code point then press Alt + X to convert:

Character	Type This	Then Press
ä	00E4	Alt + X
ë	00EB	Alt + X
ï	00EF	Alt + X
ö	00F6	Alt + X
ü	00FC	Alt + X
ÿ	00FF	Alt + X
Ä	00C4	Alt + X
Ë	00CB	Alt + X
Ï	00CF	Alt + X
Ö	00D6	Alt + X
Ü	00DC	Alt + X
Ÿ	0178	Alt + X

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Character Map

1. Open Start and search “Character Map”
2. Search for “umlaut” or “diaeresis” or the specific letter (e.g., “u with diaeresis”)
3. Select your character
4. Click Select, then Copy
5. Paste into your document

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Add a German Keyboard Layout

For regular German writing, the German keyboard layout gives ä, ö, and ü their own dedicated keys:

1. Go to Settings > Time & Language > Language & Region
2. Click Add a language and choose German
3. Switch layouts using Windows key + Space
4. On the German (QWERTZ) layout:
   • ä sits where the apostrophe key is on a US keyboard
   • ö sits where the semicolon key is
   • ü sits where the left bracket key is

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How to Type Umlaut Letters on Mac

Press and Hold (Easiest Method)

Press and hold any vowel key on your Mac keyboard and a popup appears showing all accent variants including the umlaut. Press the number corresponding to the umlaut or click it directly.

• Hold A → shows ä among options
• Hold E → shows ë among options
• Hold I → shows ï among options
• Hold O → shows ö among options
• Hold U → shows ü among options
• Hold Y → shows ÿ among options (on some keyboard configurations)

Works in every macOS app with no setup required.

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Option Key Shortcuts

The umlaut has a dedicated Option key shortcut on Mac — press Option + U first (this plants a floating umlaut), then press the vowel you want to apply it to:

Character	Shortcut
ä	Option + U, then A
ë	Option + U, then E
ï	Option + U, then I
ö	Option + U, then O
ü	Option + U, then U
ÿ	Option + U, then Y

For uppercase versions, hold Shift when typing the final vowel:

• Option + U, then Shift + A → Ä
• Option + U, then Shift + E → Ë
• Option + U, then Shift + O → Ö
• Option + U, then Shift + U → Ü

Note: Option + U is a dead-key sequence — pressing Option + U does not immediately produce a visible character. It places an invisible umlaut modifier that combines with the next vowel you press. This is the same pattern as Option + E for acute accents and Option + ` for grave accents.

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Character Viewer

1. Press Control + Command + Space
2. Search for “umlaut” or “diaeresis” or a specific letter like “u with diaeresis”
3. Double-click to insert

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Unicode Hex Input

1. Enable Unicode Hex Input under System Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources
2. Hold Option and type the Unicode code point:
   • 00E4 → ä
   • 00EB → ë
   • 00EF → ï
   • 00F6 → ö
   • 00FC → ü
   • 00FF → ÿ

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Add a German Keyboard on Mac

1. Go to System Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources
2. Click + and search for German
3. Add the German (QWERTZ) layout
4. Switch using the input menu in the menu bar
5. ä, ö, and ü each have their own dedicated keys

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How to Type Umlaut Letters on iPhone and iPad

Press and Hold (Built-In — Easiest)

iOS supports umlaut variants natively through press-and-hold popups with no setup required:

• Press and hold A → popup includes ä
• Press and hold E → popup includes ë
• Press and hold I → popup includes ï
• Press and hold O → popup includes ö
• Press and hold U → popup includes ü

Slide your finger to the umlaut character and release. Works in every iOS app instantly.

Uppercase Umlauts on iPhone

Tap Shift to enable caps, then press and hold the vowel to access uppercase umlaut variants: Ä Ë Ï Ö Ü

Add a German Keyboard

For frequent German typing with dedicated umlaut keys:

1. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards
2. Tap Add New Keyboard
3. Select German
4. Switch using the globe icon while typing
5. ä, ö, and ü appear as dedicated keys on the German keyboard

Text Replacement for Less Common Umlauts

For characters like ÿ or Ÿ that may not appear in the press-and-hold popup:

1. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement
2. Tap +
3. In Phrase, paste ÿ
4. In Shortcut, type something like yuml
5. Tap Save

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How to Type Umlaut Letters on Android

Press and Hold (Built-In — Easiest)

On most Android keyboards including Gboard, press and hold any vowel to bring up a popup of accented variants including umlauts:

• Hold A → includes ä
• Hold E → includes ë
• Hold I → includes ï
• Hold O → includes ö
• Hold U → includes ü

Slide to your choice and release.

Add German to Gboard

1. Open Gboard Settings
2. Tap Languages > Add Keyboard
3. Select German
4. Switch using the globe icon while typing
5. ä, ö, and ü will appear as dedicated keys

Personal Dictionary Shortcut

For less common umlaut characters:

1. Go to Gboard Settings > Dictionary > Personal Dictionary
2. Add each character with a memorable shortcut:
   • Add ÿ with shortcut yuml
   • Add Ÿ with shortcut Yuml
3. Gboard will suggest these when you type the shortcuts

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How to Type Umlaut Letters in Microsoft Word

Built-In Keyboard Shortcuts (Word Only)

Word has a dedicated shortcut for the umlaut that works regardless of your keyboard layout:

Ctrl + Shift + : (colon) then the vowel → umlaut letter

Character	Word Shortcut
ä	Ctrl + Shift + : then A
ë	Ctrl + Shift + : then E
ï	Ctrl + Shift + : then I
ö	Ctrl + Shift + : then O
ü	Ctrl + Shift + : then U
ÿ	Ctrl + Shift + : then Y

For uppercase, hold Shift when pressing the final vowel:

• Ctrl + Shift + : then Shift + A → Ä
• Ctrl + Shift + : then Shift + O → Ö
• Ctrl + Shift + : then Shift + U → Ü

How to press Ctrl + Shift + : — Hold Ctrl and Shift simultaneously, then press the colon key (which is Shift + semicolon on a US keyboard, so you are effectively holding Ctrl + Shift and pressing the semicolon key). Release all keys, then immediately press your vowel.

Alt + X Method

Type the Unicode code point followed by Alt + X:

• 00E4 + Alt + X → ä
• 00F6 + Alt + X → ö
• 00FC + Alt + X → ü
• 00EB + Alt + X → ë
• 00EF + Alt + X → ï
• 00FF + Alt + X → ÿ

AutoCorrect Setup

For the most efficient workflow when typing German or other umlaut-heavy languages in Word:

1. Go to File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options
2. Set up replacements for each umlaut using intuitive patterns:
   • Replace ae with ä
   • Replace oe with ö
   • Replace ue with ü
3. Click Add for each, then OK

This mirrors the traditional German typewriter convention where ae, oe, and ue were used as substitutes for ä, ö, and ü when the umlaut keys were unavailable. Be cautious — ae, oe, and ue are legitimate English letter combinations, so AutoCorrect may cause unintended replacements in English text.

Insert > Symbol

1. Go to Insert > Symbol > More Symbols
2. Set Subset to Latin-1 Supplement
3. Find and click your umlaut character
4. Click Insert

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How to Type Umlaut Letters in Google Docs

Insert > Special Characters

1. Go to Insert > Special Characters
2. Search for “umlaut” or “diaeresis” or the specific letter
3. Click the character to insert it

Substitutions

1. Go to Tools > Preferences > Substitutions
2. Set up shortcuts following the German convention:
   • Replace a: with ä
   • Replace o: with ö
   • Replace u: with ü
   • Replace e: with ë
3. Click OK

Copy and Paste

Copy any character from the tables in this article and paste directly into your Google Doc.

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Umlaut Letters in HTML and CSS

For web developers, here are the HTML entities and Unicode values for every umlaut letter:

Lowercase

Character	Named Entity	Hex Entity	Decimal Entity
ä	ä	ä	ä
ë	ë	ë	ë
ï	ï	ï	ï
ö	ö	ö	ö
ü	ü	ü	ü
ÿ	ÿ	ÿ	ÿ

Uppercase

Character	Named Entity	Hex Entity	Decimal Entity
Ä	Ä	Ä	Ä
Ë	Ë	Ë	Ë
Ï	Ï	Ï	Ï
Ö	Ö	Ö	Ö
Ü	Ü	Ü	Ü
Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ	Ÿ

Best practice: All six lowercase umlaut letters and five of the six uppercase ones have named HTML entities — use them for maximum readability in source code. Always include <meta charset="UTF-8"> in your HTML <head>, which also allows you to paste umlaut characters directly into markup without entities.

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Umlaut Letters by Language

German

German is the language most associated with umlauts. All three German umlaut vowels — ä, ö, ü — are full independent letters of the German alphabet, sitting at the end after Z:

• ä — Front vowel, sounds like “eh.” Common in: Mädchen (girl), Käse (cheese), Äpfel (apples), schläft (sleeps), Männer (men)
• ö — Front rounded vowel, like “ur” in British English. Common in: schön (beautiful), können (can), Öl (oil), hören (to hear)
• ü — High front rounded vowel, like French “u.” Common in: über (over), müde (tired), Tür (door), fühlen (to feel), grün (green)

When umlauts cannot be typed — on older systems or in informal digital contexts — Germans use the traditional substitution: ä → ae, ö → oe, ü → ue. This substitution is acceptable in informal writing and passwords but is never used in formal or published text.

Swedish

Swedish uses ä and ö as the last two letters of the alphabet (after å):

• ä — Common in: äta (to eat), även (also), här (here), säga (to say)
• ö — Common in: öga (eye), öl (beer), röd (red), söt (sweet)

Swedish ä and ö are never substituted with ae and oe — they are fully established letters with their own keyboard keys on Swedish keyboards.

Finnish

Finnish uses ä and ö following the same vowel harmony rules that govern the entire language:

• Words with back vowels (a, o, u) never mix with words using front vowels (ä, ö, y)
• This means suffixes and verb endings change depending on which vowel type the word uses
• Common words: tyttö (girl), yö (night), hän (he/she), äiti (mother)

Turkish

Turkish uses ö and ü as distinct letters in its 29-letter alphabet, introduced during Atatürk’s alphabet reform in 1928:

• ö — Common in: göz (eye), söz (word), öğrenci (student)
• ü — Common in: gül (rose), üç (three), dünya (world), üniversite (university)

French

French uses the umlaut strictly as a diaeresis — to indicate that adjacent vowels are pronounced separately rather than as a diphthong:

• ë — Noël (Christmas), Citroën (brand name), canoë (canoe)
• ï — naïf (naive), Anaïs (name), héroïne (heroin/heroine), Noëlle (name)
• ü — Rare, mainly in loanwords
• ÿ — Extremely rare, appears in a handful of place names like L’Haÿ-les-Roses

Dutch

Dutch uses the diaeresis regularly to mark separate vowel pronunciation:

• ë — tweeën (two, when counting), geëerd (honored)
• ï — intuïtie (intuition), naïef (naive), coïncidentie (coincidence)
• ü — Rare, mostly in loanwords

Albanian

Albanian uses ë as a full letter of its alphabet — the 8th letter — representing a central schwa-like vowel:

• Extremely common: një (one), është (is), më (me/more), të (to/you)
• Albanian ë is one of the most frequent letters in the language

Kurdish (Kurmanji)

Kurmanji Kurdish uses several umlaut letters including ê, î, and û as standard letters, plus less common ḧ and ẍ:

• ê — Long E sound
• î — Long I sound
• û — Long U sound

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The German Umlaut Substitution System

When German umlauts cannot be typed — in older digital systems, URLs, passwords, or plain-text contexts — a well-established substitution system is used:

Umlaut	Substitution	Example
ä	ae	Mädchen → Maedchen
ö	oe	schön → schoen
ü	ue	über → ueber
Ä	Ae	Ärger → Aerger
Ö	Oe	Österreich → Oesterreich
Ü	Ue	Übersicht → Uebersicht
ß	ss	Straße → Strasse

This substitution system is formalized — ae, oe, ue are the only accepted substitutes, not a, o, u with the dots simply removed. In German phone directories and some legal documents, names with umlauts are alphabetized as if they were spelled with the substitution (Müller files as Mueller, after Mu- words but before N).

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Umlaut Letters in Brand Names and Proper Nouns

Umlaut letters appear in many brand names, band names, and proper nouns that have entered international usage. Retaining the umlaut is correct in formal writing:

Name	Type	Notes
Über	Company (Uber)	The ride-share company dropped the umlaut for its brand but the word is correctly spelled über
Mötley Crüe	Band	Deliberately added umlauts for visual effect — not linguistically correct German
Spın̈al Tap	Fictional band	Satirical use of umlaut for heavy metal aesthetic
Häagen-Dazs	Ice cream brand	Invented pseudo-Scandinavian name — not actual Danish or Norwegian
Citroën	Car brand	French diaeresis — correctly retained in formal writing
Björn	Name	Swedish — ö is essential to correct spelling
Zürich	City	Swiss German — ü is the correct spelling
München	City (Munich)	German name for Munich — ü essential
Köln	City (Cologne)	German name for Cologne — ö essential
Düsseldorf	City	ü essential to correct spelling

The practice of adding umlauts to English band names, logos, and brand names purely for visual effect — without any linguistic basis — is sometimes called the heavy metal umlaut or röck döts. It became a cliché of heavy metal and hard rock branding in the 1970s and 1980s, used by bands including Motörhead, Blue Öyster Cult, and Queensrÿche.

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Quick Reference: Umlaut Letters Cheat Sheet

Character	Mac Shortcut	Windows Alt	Word Shortcut	HTML Entity
ä	Option + U, then A	Alt + 132	Ctrl+Shift+: then A	ä
ë	Option + U, then E	Alt + 137	Ctrl+Shift+: then E	ë
ï	Option + U, then I	Alt + 139	Ctrl+Shift+: then I	ï
ö	Option + U, then O	Alt + 148	Ctrl+Shift+: then O	ö
ü	Option + U, then U	Alt + 129	Ctrl+Shift+: then U	ü
ÿ	Option + U, then Y	Alt + 152	Ctrl+Shift+: then Y	ÿ
Ä	Option + U, then Shift+A	Alt + 142	Ctrl+Shift+: then Shift+A	Ä
Ë	Option + U, then Shift+E	Alt + 0203	Ctrl+Shift+: then Shift+E	Ë
Ï	Option + U, then Shift+I	Alt + 0207	Ctrl+Shift+: then Shift+I	Ï
Ö	Option + U, then Shift+O	Alt + 153	Ctrl+Shift+: then Shift+O	Ö
Ü	Option + U, then Shift+U	Alt + 154	Ctrl+Shift+: then Shift+U	Ü
Ÿ	Option + U, then Shift+Y	Alt + 0159	Ctrl+Shift+: then Shift+Y	Ÿ

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Final Thoughts

Umlaut letters are among the most consistently supported special characters across all modern platforms — every major operating system, browser, and font includes the full set of ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, and ÿ. For quick and occasional use, press and hold on Mac, iPhone, and Android brings up the umlaut popup instantly for any vowel. For regular German, Swedish, Turkish, or Finnish writing, adding the language keyboard gives each umlaut its own dedicated key — the most natural and efficient long-term solution. Word users have the clean Ctrl + Shift + : shortcut that handles every umlaut vowel with a single consistent pattern. Web developers should use the named HTML entities — ä, ö, ü and their uppercase equivalents — for readable, universally supported markup. And wherever you encounter the umlaut in a German word, a Swedish place name, or a French proper noun, remember: those two dots are never decorative — they are doing essential linguistic work.