Check out our guide below for everything you need to know.
Acute ( ´ ) and grave ( ` ) accents – Used in languages including French, Italian, and Spanish, typically to modify vowels or indicate stress in a word.
Circumflex ( ˆ ) – Show that an “s” has been removed from a French word.
Tilde ( ~ ) – Can be placed over an “n” to indicate pronunciation in some languages (this combination is even used as a separate letter in Spanish).
Umlaut ( ¨ ) – As mentioned above, this symbol in English is a dieresis. However, in German, it is an umlaut and changes the sound of vowels. So the same symbol serves different roles in different languages. In English, we do have the heavy metal umlaut, but this is purely decorative.
So, when do we use diacritics in English? Typically, it will be for loanwords (i.e., words borrowed from other languages). We sometimes write “café” with an acute accent over the “e” because it comes from French, for example, or “jalapeño” with a tilde over the “n” because it comes from Spanish.
But these words can be written without diacritics in English as well (i.e., “cafe” and “jalapeno”). This is because they are well established in English. We even have words that used to be written with a diacritic but that are now always written without one, such as “muesli” (originally “müesli”).
Is the word commonly used in English already? If so, the diacritics may be optional. It would then be a matter of preference.
Is the word usually written with a diacritic in English? If you are unsure, you can check online to see how other people have written it.
Beyond this, it is a matter of preference. The most important thing is to apply diacritics consistently (e.g., if you write “café” in one place, don’t switch to “cafe” in the next sentence).
Finally, given that most English keyboards don’t feature letters with diacritics, how do you actually use them in your writing? In Microsoft Word, it all depends on the word in question.
Selecting a letter with a diacritic mark.
Once you have used a symbol from this menu, it is added to the quick access menu. So if you need to reuse it later, simply select it there instead.