How to Type in French
Before we begin: in order to use all of Tongue of Fire’s resources, it’s important to be able to type in French on whatever device you use. That’s why we’ve provided this guide to French typing on the Windows, Mac, iOS (iPhone), and Android operating systems.
Windows
Typing in French on Windows requires installing a new keyboard input on your device, which is a different way of mapping your keys to characters to let you type new characters. To install it:
- Open the Settings app
- Click Time & Language
- Click Typing
- Click Language & Region
- Click the three dots next to English (United States)
- Click Language Options
- Click Add a keyboard
- Click United States - International
You now have two keyboard inputs! You can press ⊞ + space or click ENG - US in the bottom-right corner to switch between them. While using the US-International keyboard, here’s how to type all the characters you’ll need for French:
- Acute accent (é): ' , [vowel] (press and release ', then press and release any vowel)
- Grave accent (è): ` , [vowel]
- Circumflex (ê): Shift + ^ , [vowel]
- Dieresis (ë): " , [vowel]
- Cedilla (ç): ' , c
- Angle quotes (« and »): Right Alt + [ and Right Alt + ]
- Lowercase OE ligature (œ): Left Alt + 0156 (type the numbers on the number pad on the right side of the keyboard)
- Uppercase OE ligature (Œ): Left Alt + 0140
All of the characters above except for the angle quotes and the ligature can be capitalized by holding Shift when typing the main letter.
Mac
The Mac keyboard is already capable of typing all the characters you’ll need in French. Here’s how to type all the new ones you’ll need:
- Acute accent (é): Option + e, [vowel] (hold Option; press e; release Option; press any vowel)
- Grave accent (è): Option + `, [vowel]
- Circumflex (ê): Option + i, [vowel]
- Dieresis (ë): Option + u, [vowel]
- Cedilla (ç): Option + c
- Angle quotes (« and »): Option + \ and Option + Shift + \
- OE ligature (œ): Option + q
All of the characters above except for the angle quotes can be capitalized by holding Shift when typing the main letter.
iOS and Android
The iPhone and Android keyboards are already capable of typing all the characters you’ll need in French. Simply press and hold a key for a second to see all the versions of that character you can choose from. Then slide your finger to the option you want and release your finger. For example, to type “é”, press and hold the e key, slide it to the version with the acute accent, and release your finger.
Note that the OE ligature (œ) is found by holding the O key, and the angle quotes (« and ») are found by holding the quotation mark key.
You can type a capitalized accented letter by pressing the Shift key, then following the steps above.