Diacritics are marks placed above or below (or sometimes next to) a letter in a word to indicate a particular pronunciation—in regard to accent, tone, or stress—as well as meaning, especially when a homograph exists without the marked letter or letters.
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What is the purpose of diacritics?
Diacritics are marks placed above or below (or sometimes next to) a letter in a word to indicate a particular pronunciation—in regard to accent, tone, or stress—as well as meaning, especially when a homograph exists without the marked letter or letters.

What are the different diacritics?
The tilde, dot, comma, titlo, apostrophe, bar, and colon are sometimes diacritical marks, but also have other uses. Not all diacritics occur adjacent to the letter they modify.
What means diacritic?
Definition of diacritic : a mark near or through an orthographic or phonetic character or combination of characters indicating a phonetic value different from that given the unmarked or otherwise marked element.
What language uses the most diacritics?

Vietnamese uses a high number of diacritics. Are there any languages that are even higher, in terms of either the maximum or the mean of the number of diacritics added to letters?
How do I use diacritical marks in word?
For more info, see Insert a symbol in Word….Keyboard shortcuts to add language accent marks in Word.
To insert this | Press |
---|---|
á, é, í, ó, ú, ý Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, Ý | CTRL+’ (APOSTROPHE), the letter |
â, ê, î, ô, û Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û | CTRL+SHIFT+^ (CARET), the letter |
ã, ñ, õ Ã, Ñ, Õ | CTRL+SHIFT+~ (TILDE), the letter |
ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ, Ä, Ë, Ï, Ö, Ü, Ÿ | CTRL+SHIFT+: (COLON), the letter |
How do I use diacritics in word?
If you’re working on a laptop without a separate numeric keyboard, you can add most accented characters using the Insert > Symbol > More Symbols command in Word….Keyboard shortcuts to add language accent marks in Word.
To insert this | Press |
---|---|
á, é, í, ó, ú, ý Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, Ý | CTRL+’ (APOSTROPHE), the letter |
â, ê, î, ô, û Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û | CTRL+SHIFT+^ (CARET), the letter |
Does English have diacritics?
In English, diacritics are not normally used, but they occur in three situations. First, many foreign words and phrases have been borrowed into English, and some of these are not yet regarded as fully anglicized.
How do you write diacritics?
In Word, you can use accent marks (or diacritical marks) in a document, such as an acute accent, cedilla, circumflex, diaeresis or umlaut, grave accent, or tilde….Keyboard shortcuts to add language accent marks in Word.
To insert this | Press |
---|---|
á, é, í, ó, ú, ý Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, Ý | CTRL+’ (APOSTROPHE), the letter |
â, ê, î, ô, û Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û | CTRL+SHIFT+^ (CARET), the letter |
What languages use diacritics?
Diacritics and special characters by language
Language | Diacritic (and the letter(s) it affects) or special character |
---|---|
Spanish | acute: a, e, i, o, u tilde: n umlaut: u |
Swedish | circle above (angstrom): a umlaut: a, o |
Turkish | alif breve: g cedilla: c, s circumflex: a, I, u circumflex, Turkish i (î) dot above: I umlaut: o, u |