What Is the Umlaut / diaeresis? Meaning, Letters and How to Type It
Two dots above a letter. As a German umlaut it changes the vowel sound (ä, ö, ü); as a diaeresis in French, Dutch, Spanish or English (naïve, Noël) it shows that a vowel is pronounced separately.
Letters with the umlaut / diaeresis: ü ö ä ë ï ÿ ǖ ǘ ǚ ǜ ǟ ȫ ḧ ḯ
Combining character: U+0308
What the umlaut / diaeresis does
Two dots above a letter. As a German umlaut it changes the vowel sound (ä, ö, ü); as a diaeresis in French, Dutch, Spanish or English (naïve, Noël) it shows that a vowel is pronounced separately. Unicode encodes 33 precomposed letters with this mark as their first diacritic, and the combining form U+0308 can add it to any other letter.
Languages that use it
Afrikaans, Albanian, Catalan, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Mandarin Pinyin, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Welsh.
All lowercase letters with the umlaut / diaeresis
Codes and shortcuts
| Letter | Name | Unicode | Alt code | Mac |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ü | u with umlaut | U+00FC | Alt+0252 | Option+U, then U |
| ö | o with umlaut | U+00F6 | Alt+0246 | Option+U, then O |
| ä | a with umlaut | U+00E4 | Alt+0228 | Option+U, then A |
| ë | e with umlaut | U+00EB | Alt+0235 | Option+U, then E |
| ï | i with umlaut | U+00EF | Alt+0239 | Option+U, then I |
| ÿ | y with umlaut | U+00FF | Alt+0255 | Option+U, then Y |
| ǖ | u with umlaut and macron | U+01D6 | — | — |
| ǘ | u with umlaut and acute | U+01D8 | — | — |
| ǚ | u with umlaut and caron | U+01DA | — | — |
| ǜ | u with umlaut and grave | U+01DC | — | — |
| ǟ | a with umlaut and macron | U+01DF | — | — |
| ȫ | o with umlaut and macron | U+022B | — | — |
| ḧ | h with umlaut | U+1E27 | — | — |
| ḯ | i with umlaut and acute | U+1E2F | — | — |
| ẅ | w with umlaut | U+1E85 | — | — |
| ẍ | x with umlaut | U+1E8D | — | — |
| ẗ | t with umlaut | U+1E97 | — | — |
How to type it on any letter
On Windows, hold Alt and type the code from the table, or type the letter followed by U+0308 in Word and press Alt+X. On a Mac, use Unicode Hex Input: type the letter, then hold Option and type 0308. On a Chromebook, type the letter, then Ctrl+Shift+U, 0308, Space.
Copy every letter with the umlaut / diaeresis