Almost all applications support Italian accents. Guidelines for typing and using accents are given below.  If you need to refer to additional characters, look under the Accents tab.

See also Romance

Page Contents

  1. Accent Codes
    1. Windows Alt Codes
    2. Windows International Keyboard
    3. Macintosh Accent Codes
  2. iPhone/iPad or Droid (New Page)
  3. Italian or International Keyboards (New Page)
  4. Italian Web Pages
  5. Language Codes
    1. Language Code: it
  6. HTML Accent Codes
  7. Linux Links

Windows ALT Codes

In Windows, combinations of the ALT key plus a numeric code from the number keypad can be used to type a non-English character in any Windows application.

See the detailed instructions on the ALT Code How To for complete information on implementing the code. Additional options for entering accents in Windows are also listed in the Accents section of this Web site.

Capital Vowels
Vwl ALT Code
À ALT+0192
È ALT+0200
É ALT+0201
Ì ALT+0204
Ò ALT+0210
Ó ALT+0211
Ù ALT+0217
Lower Vowels
Vwl ALT Code
à ALT+0224
è ALT+0232
é ALT+0233
ì ALT+0236
ò ALT+0242
ó ALT+0243
ù ALT+0249
 
Other Symbols
Sym ALT Code
º ALT+0186 (Masculine Ordinal)
ª ALT+0170 (Feminine Ordinal)
« ALT+0171 (Left Angle Quote)
» ALT+0187 (Right Angle Quote)
€ ALT+0128

Quick Examples

  1. To input capital Á (ALT+0193), hold down the ALT key then type 0193 (all four digits) on the numeric keypad. The ALT codes do not work with the row of number keys on the top.
  2. To input lowercase á (ALT+0225), change the code from 0193 to 0225.

See the ALT Code How To for complete information on implementing the code.

Windows International Keyboard Codes

In order to use these codes you must activate the U.S. international keyboard. Once the U.S. International keyboard has been activated, you can use the codes below.

Windows International Keyboard Codes for Italian
Character Description
Grave (Backwards) Accent

(`+V) – Type grave key (upper right), then the vowel.

Acute (Forwards) Accent

(‘+V) – Type apostrophe (singe quote), then the vowel.

«, »

RightAlt+[    
Right Alt+]      (You must use the Alt key on the Right)
€

Control+Right Alt+5

Windows Italian Keyboard

If you wish to simulate a non U.S. keyboard, follow the instructions for Activating Keyboard Locales to activate and switch Microsoft keyboards.

Macintosh Accent Codes

The Option codes below work in any Mac application.

Macintosh Option Codes for Italian
Character Description
Grave (Backwards) Accent

Type Option+`, then then the vowel. For instance, to type à hold down Option+` then type lowercase A. To type À, hold down
Option+`, then type capital A.
Acute (Forwards) Accent

Type Option+E, then the vowel.

º, ª

Option+0
Option+9 (Masculine/Feminine Ordinal Number Markers)
«, »

Option+\
Shift+Option+\ (Double Angle Quotes)
€

Shift+Control+2 (may not work for older System 9 fonts)

 

Italian Web Pages

If you are developing Web pages with Spanish content, the following information can make sure that the content is properly displayed.

This section presents information specific to Italian. For general information about developing non-English Web sites, see the Encoding Tutorial or the Web Layout sections.

Historical Encodings

Unicode (utf-8) is the preferred encoding for Web sites. However, the following historic encodings may still be encountered.

  • iso-8859-1 (Latin 1),
  • iso-8859-15 (adds support for the euro (€)
  • win-1252

If possible, you should transition to Unicode.

Language Codes

Language Tags allow browsers and other software to process text more efficiently. They are also important for optimal screen reader accessibility.

The code for Standard Italian is it.

Italian "Dialects"

Different parts of Italy speak in varieties which are traditionally called "dialects", but they are so different from Standard Italian that spealers from different regions may not understand each other. Linguists usually consider many these dialects to be separate related "Romance" languages. Some of these forms have been recognized as minority languages in their home regions

Some prominent forms include the following:
Note: Standard Italian is based on Tuscan Italy near Florence.

Dialect Codes

  • co (Corsican, France)
  • dlm Dalmatian, Croatia, extinct)
  • eml (Emilian)
  • ist (Istriot, Slovenia/Croatia/Italy)
  • lij (Ligurian)
  • lmo (Lombard)
  • nap (Neapolitan)
  • rm (Rhaeto-Romance) includes
    • fur (Friullian)
    • lld (Ladin)
  • rgn (Romagnol)
  • scn (Sicilian/Calabrian)
  • pms (Piedmontese)
  • sc (Sardinian)
  • vec (Venetian/Veneto)

HTML Accent Codes

Use these codes to input accented letters in HTML. For instance, if you want to type caffè you would type caffè.

The numbers in parentheses are the numeric codes assigned in Unicode encoding. For instance, because è is number 232, caffè can also be used to input caffè. These numbers arwalso used with the Windows Alt codes listed above.

HTML Entity Codes

Capital Vowels
Vwl Entity Code
À À (192)
È È (200)
É É (201)
Ì Ì (204)
Ò Ò (210)
Ó Ó (211)
Ù Ù (217)
Lower Vowels
Vwl Entity Code
à à (224)
è è (232)
é é(233)
ì ì(236)
ò ò (242)
ó ó (243)
ù ù (249)
Other Punctuation
Sym Entity Code
º º (186)
ª ª (170)
« « (171)
» »(187)
‹ ‹
› ›
€ €
ª ª (170)

 

Linux/Unix

Most Linux or Unix information is in Italian.

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