Almost all applications support Dutch accents. Guidelines for typing and using accents are given below. If you need to refer to additional characters, look under the Accents section.
Thanks to Lex Bennik for techincal assistance.
This page covers three related languages which all originated from the Western coast of Europe. Dutch is a Germanic language spoken in the Netherlands; Flemish is the related language spoken in Belgium; and Afrikaans is the form of Dutch which evolved in South Africa (includes African loan words). All three can be understood by each other with minimal difficulty.
Note also that Dutch has recently undergone a spelling reform which has reduced the number of accents used to primarily the acute and umlaut (dieresis), but some older or French borrowed words may use the grave and circumflex accents.
Frisian is another Germanic language spoken in the coastal regions of the Netherlands which is related to Anglo-Saxon. Frisian is considered the closest relative to English spoken in Europe.
In Windows, combinations of the ALT key plus a numeric code can be used to type a non-English character (accented letter or punctuation symbol) in any Windows application. More detailed instructions about typing accents with ALT keys are available. Additional options for entering accents in Windows are also listed in the Accents section of this Web site.
| Accent | A | E | I | O | U | Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acute (Cap) |
Á 0193 |
É 0201 |
Í 0205 |
Ó 0211 |
Ú 0218 |
Ý 0221 |
| Acute (Lower) | á 0225 |
é 0233 |
í 0237 |
ó 0243 |
ú 0250 |
ý 0253 |
| Umlaut (Cap) |
Ä 0196 |
Ë 0203 |
Ï 0207 |
Ö 0214 |
Ü 0220 |
Ÿ 0159 |
| Umlaut (Lower) | ä 0228 |
ë 0235 |
ï 0239 |
ö 0246 |
ü 0252 |
ÿ 0255 |
| Grave (Cap) |
À 0192 |
È 0200 |
Ì 0204 |
Ò 0210 |
Ù 0217 |
|
| Grave (Lower) | à 0224 |
è 0232 |
ì 0236 |
ò 0242 |
ù 0249 |
|
| Circumflex (Cap) |
 0194 |
Ê 0202 |
Î 0206 |
Ô 0212 |
Û 0219 |
|
| Circumflex (Lower) | â 0226 |
ê 0234 |
î 0238 |
ô 0244 |
û 0251 |
| Punctuation | |
| « | ALT+0171 (Left Angle Quote) |
|---|---|
| » | ALT+0187 (Right Angle Quote) |
| € | ALT+0128 |
| ƒ | ALT+0131 (Dutch florin sign) |
In order to use these codes you must activate the international keyboard. Instructions are listed in the Keyboards section of this Web site.
This list is organized by Accent type. The sample shows a letter with that accent, and the Notes present any special comments about using that accent.
For the Template, the symbol "V" means any vowel.
| ACCENT | SAMPLE | TEMPLATE | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Circumflex | ô Ô | Shift+^, V | |
| Acute | ó Ó | ', V | ' = apostrophe key |
| Umlaut | ö Ö | ", V | "= quote key |
| Grave | ò Ò | `, V | |
| Euro | € | Control+RightAlt+5 | |
| Double Ange Quotes | « » |
RightAlt+[ RightAlt+] |
Example 1: To type the letter ó - Type the apostrophe key ('), then O. For Ó, type the apostrophe, then capital O.
If you wish to simulate a non U.S. keyboard, follow the instructions for Activating Keyboard Locales to activate and switch Microsoft keyboards.
For the Template, the symbol "V" means any vowel. The
format is to hold the first two keys down simultaneously, release, then
type the vowel you wish to be accented.
Note: You should use the Dutch Keyboard if you need to type accents on the letter y.
| ACCENT | SAMPLE | TEMPLATE |
|---|---|---|
| Acute | ó Ó |
Option+E, V |
| Umlaut |
ö Ö |
Option+U, V |
| Circumflex | ô Ô |
Option+I, V |
| Grave |
ò Ò |
Option+`, V |
| Double Angle Braket |
«,» |
Option+| Shift+Option+| |
| Euro |
€ |
Shift+Option+2 |
| Dutch Florin Sign | ƒ |
Option+F |
Example 1: To input the letter ó, hold down the Option
key, then the E key. Release both keys then type lowercase o.
Example 2: To input the letter Ó, hold down the
Option key, then the E key. Release all three keys then
type capital O.
If you are working with a Unicode aware application such as Microsoft Office 2004, Text Edit (free with OS X ), Dreamweaver or Netscape 7 Composer /Mozilla Composer you can activate the Extended Roman keyboard (10.2) or the U.S. Extended keyboard (10.3) and use the normal accent codes.
Example: For Ý, type Option+E, then capital Y.
These are the codes which allow browsers and screen readers to process data as the appropriate language. All letters in codes are lower case.
See Using Encoding and Language Codes for more information on the meaning and implementation of these codes.
Use these codes to input accented letters in HTML. For instance, if you want to type één you would type één.
The numbers in parentheses are the numeric codes assigned in Unicode encoding. For instance, because é is number 233, één can also be used to input één.These numbers are also used with the Windows Alt codes listed above.
| Accent | A | E | I | O | U | Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acute &Vacute; (Cap) |
Á Á (193) |
É É (201) |
Í Í (205) |
Ó Ó (211) |
Ú Ú (218) |
Ý Ý (221) |
| Acute (Lower) | á á (225) |
é é (233) |
í í (237) |
ó ó (243) |
ú ú (250) |
ý ý (253) |
| Umlaut &Vuml; (Cap) |
Ä Ä (196) |
Ë Ë (203) |
Ï Ï (207) |
Ö Ö (214) |
Ü Ü (220) |
Ÿ Ÿ |
| Umlaut (Lower) | ä ä (228) |
ë ë (235) |
ï ï (239) |
ö ö (246) |
ü ü (252) |
Ÿ Ÿ (255) |
| Grave &Vgrave; (Cap) |
À À (192) |
È È (200) |
Ì Ì (204) |
Ò Ò (210) |
Ù Ù (217) |
|
| Grave (Lower) | à à (224) |
è è (232) |
ì ì (236) |
ò ò (242) |
ù ù (249) |
|
| Circumflex &Vcirc; (Cap) |
  (194) |
Ê Ê (202) |
Î Î (206) |
Ô Ô (212) |
Û Û (219) |
|
| Circumflex (Lower) | â â (226) |
ê ê (234) |
î î (238) |
ô ô (244) |
û û (251) |
| Punctuation | |
| « | « (171) |
|---|---|
| » | » (187) | ‹ | ‹ |
| › | › |
| € | € |
| ƒ | ƒ |
Note: Older browsers may not support ƒ for a Dutch florin sign or the single angle codes (‹ / › for ‹ and ›).
Many modern texts use American style quotes, but if you wish to include European style quote marks, here are the codes. Note that these codes may not work in older browsers.
| European Quote Marks | |
| « | « (left angle) |
|---|---|
| » | » (right angle) | ‹ | ‹ (left single angle) |
| › | › (right single angle) | „ | „(bottom quote) | ‚ | ‚(single bottom quote) | “ | “(left curly quote) | ‘ | ‘(left single curly quote) | ” | ”(right curly quote) | ’ | ’(right single curly quote) | – | – (en dash) |
| — | — (em dash) |
Computers process text by assuming a certain encoding or a system of matching electronic data with visual text characters. Whenever you develop a Web site you need to make sure the proper encoding is specified in the header tags; otherwise the browser may default to U.S. settings and not display the text properly.
To declare an encoding, insert or inspect the following meta-tag at the top of your HTML file, then replace "???" with one of the encoding codes listed above. If you are not sure, use utf-8 as the encoding.
Generic Encoding Template
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=??? ">
...
<head>Declare Unicode
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8 ">
...
<head>
The final close slash must be included after the final quote mark in the encoding header tag if you are using XHTML
Declare Unicode in XHTML
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
...
<head>
If no encoding is declared, then the browser uses the default setting, which in the U.S. is typically Latin-1. In that case many Unicode characters could be displayed incorrectly. Also, older browsers such as Netscape 4.7 may not be able to process the entity codes correctly without the "utf-8" declaration.
Language tags are also suggested so that search engines and screen readers parse the language of a page. These are meta data tags which indicate the page of a language, not devices to trigger translation. Visit the Language Tag page to view information on where to insert it.
Some content in Dutch.
