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How to type Lithuanian letters on an English keyboard
Type ą, č, ę, ė, į, š, ų, ū and ž on a US keyboard on Mac, Windows and Linux, with the downside of each way and one that needs no extra keys.
Lithuanian has nine letters that English does not: ą, č, ę, ė, į, š, ų, ū and ž. Four of them carry the nosinė, the small tail under ą, ę, į, ų. ė has a dot, ū has a long bar, and č, š, ž have the háček.
These letters change grammar, not only sound. The tail often marks the case of a noun: gydytoja and gydytoją are different forms of the same word. So text without them is not only less pretty, it can be less clear. Here are the ways to type them on a US keyboard.
On a Mac
Press and hold. Hold a letter key to see the accented forms available in the current app and input source. Choose a letter by clicking it or pressing its number. The menu does not appear in every app and may not contain every letter you need. For a missing letter, use a language layout or Character Viewer.
Option shortcuts. The standard ABC layout does not cover this full set of letters. The ABC - Extended input source offers more marks. Add it in Keyboard settings, then choose Show Keyboard Viewer from the Input menu. Hold Option to see its dead keys, press the key for the mark, then type the letter. Use Character Viewer if the letter is not available.
The Lithuanian layout. Open System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit, press +, and add Lithuanian. Switch between it and your US layout with Control + Space or the globe key if it is set to change input sources.
For an occasional letter, open Character Viewer with Control + Command + Space. Expand the viewer if needed, search for the letter, and double-click it to insert it.
On Windows
The Lithuanian keyboards. The Microsoft layout chart shows the plain Lithuanian layout. Open Settings → Time & language → Language & region, add Lithuanian or only its keyboard, and switch with Windows + Space. Windows offers Lithuanian, Lithuanian Standard and Lithuanian IBM. The plain Lithuanian layout keeps the letter keys where they are on a US keyboard and puts ą, č, ę, ė, į, š, ų, ū on the number row, with ž on the = key. That makes it easy to learn, but the digits move to another level, which hurts when you type dates, prices or code.
Alt codes. The leading-zero codes below use Windows-1252, the Western European code page. Results can differ with the system code page. Hold Alt and type a number on the number pad with Num Lock on: 0154 for š, 0158 for ž. Windows-1252 has no codes of this kind for the other seven. In Microsoft Word you can type the Unicode number and press Alt + X, for example 0117 for ė or 0173 for ų.
US-International does not help: it has no nosinė, no dot and no háček.
On Linux
GNOME and KDE offer Lithuanian, Lithuanian (US), Lithuanian (standard) and others. Lithuanian (US) is the most practical with a US keyboard. The digits stay, and AltGr with the number row types the letters: AltGr + 1 ą, 2 č, 3 ę, 4 ė, 5 į, 6 š, 7 ų, 8 ū, and AltGr + = ž.
A Compose key also works: Compose, ;, a types ą, Compose, ., e types ė, Compose, -, u types ū, and Compose, c, s types š.
Where each way slows you down
Every method needs you to decide, letter by letter, which mark goes where. That is the hard part of Lithuanian spelling even for native speakers: į or y, ų or ū, ę or ė. The number row layout steals your digits, and the shortcuts cost two or three keys for each letter.
Type without the letters, get Lithuanian
Typeet moves the work to after the word. You keep the US layout and type Lithuanian without the marks. When you finish a word with a space or punctuation, Typeet writes the correct spelling:
- Rytoj ryte einu pas gydytoja, todel veluosiu. becomes Rytoj ryte einu pas gydytoją, todėl vėluosiu.
- Ar galetum grizdamas nupirkti duonos ir pieno? becomes Ar galėtum grįždamas nupirkti duonos ir pieno?
- Sestadieni vaziuojame i kaima pas senelius, ar vaziuosi kartu? becomes Šeštadienį važiuojame į kaimą pas senelius, ar važiuosi kartu?
- Musu suo megsta ziema. becomes Mūsų šuo mėgsta žiemą.
Typeet looks up each word in frequency lists for Lithuanian and for English and picks the most likely spelling. Where two spellings are both real, the words around it decide, which matters in a language where the ending carries the case. English words, iPhone, camelCase and words with digits stay as they are.
On Lithuanian test sentences it had not seen before, from the Tatoeba collection, Typeet adds 95.0% of the missing letters, 97.5% of all words come out right, and it leaves 99.99% of English words alone. It knows 186,104 Lithuanian words. For its Lithuanian book test, we typed Vaižgantas's Dėdės ir dėdienės without its letters, 31,089 words, and 88.8% came back right.
So expect to correct a word now and then. Press Backspace right after a fix to undo it, and after ten undos of the same word Typeet leaves it alone. Option + Backspace on a Mac, or Ctrl + Backspace on Windows and Linux, switches a word to its other spelling, which helps when two case forms differ by one letter.
Typeet works in every app on macOS 13 or later, Windows 10 or later, and Linux. It runs on your computer, and nothing you type is stored or sent. It is free for 14 days, then a one-time purchase of $19.
Questions
How do I type ą, ę, į and ų on a Mac?
Check the press-and-hold menu for the form with the tail. If it is missing, use Character Viewer. For frequent typing, add the Lithuanian input source.
Why do the numbers not work on my Lithuanian keyboard?
The Lithuanian layout puts the letters on the number row, so the digits move. On Linux, Lithuanian (US) keeps the digits and puts the letters on AltGr.
Is there an Alt code for ė?
Not with the standard Windows-1252 Alt + number pad codes; of the nine Lithuanian letters, only š and ž have one. In Word, type 0117 and press Alt + X.
What is a nosinė?
Nosinė is the Lithuanian name for the small tail under ą, ę, į, ų, called an ogonek in English.