Have you ever seen non-English words with little marks above certain letters? These marks are “diacritics” (or, less formally, “accents”). We sometimes use them in English writing, too. But how exactly do diacritics work? And when should you use them? In this post, we look at:
Check out our guide below for everything you need to know.
A diacritic is a mark that shows us how a word is pronounced. We do not use them much in English compared to languages like French or Spanish, but you will see them now and then. For example, the surname of the Emily who wrote Wuthering Heights is often written “Brontë.” The diacritic over the “e” here is a dieresis, which shows that the letter in question is pronounced separately. In this case, then, we know that the “ë” in “Brontë” is pronounced as a separate syllable. Some other diacritics you may have seen used include:
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”).
Whether to use a diacritic when writing a word therefore depends on a few things. Key factors include:
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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.
With some terms, MS Word automatically inserts diacritics when you type them. But you will need to add them manually in other cases. You can do this with keyboard shortcuts, which you should learn if you use diacritics often. However, you can also find letters with diacritics via the Symbols menu:
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.
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