# How to type Swedish letters å ä ö on an English keyboard Type Swedish å, ä, ö and their capitals on a US keyboard. Learn Mac, Windows and Linux methods, plus Typeet for mixed Swedish and English text. Swedish adds **å, ä** and **ö** to the alphabet, along with **Å, Ä** and **Ö**. They are separate letters. A colleague named *Åsa* should not have to become *Asa* because your laptop has US keys. You can type the right letters without buying a Swedish keyboard. The ring on **å** and the two dots on **ä** and **ö** need different shortcuts. Removing them can change a word: *far* and *får* have different meanings. Loanwords and names can also contain accents such as **é**, so keep a character picker available for less common cases. ## On a Mac ### Press and hold, or use Option Hold a to choose **å** or **ä**, and o for **ö**. Use Shift when you need **Å, Ä** or **Ö**. Menus are slow for long text and do not work in every app. On the standard US layout, use these Option shortcuts: - Option + A gives **å**. - Option + Shift + A gives **Å**. - Option + U, then a gives **ä**. - Option + U, then o gives **ö**. For **Ä** or **Ö**, enter Option + U, release it, then type the vowel with Shift. Option + A is a direct shortcut, so it does not need a second A. Use Keyboard Viewer to check your layout. Apple's [accent guide](https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/mh27474/mac) explains the menu and dead-key methods. ### Add an input source or pick a character Open System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit and add a Swedish input source. Swedish gives å, ä and ö direct keys near P and L, but those positions contain punctuation on a US keyboard. Check the active source when you return to English. Character Viewer inserts letters, but interrupts typing. Unicode Hex Input is another built-in input source: select it, hold Option and enter 00E5 for **å**. Codes are hard to remember. ## On Windows ### United States-International and national layouts In Windows 11, open Settings → Time & language → Language & region. Open your language's options, add a keyboard and pick United States-International. Switch layouts with Windows + Space. Type ", then a or o for **ä** or **ö**. There is no dead key for the ring: press AltGr + W for **å** (add Shift for **Å**). AltGr is the right Alt key. AltGr + Q and AltGr + P also give **ä** and **ö** directly. Dead keys wait for another character. To enter a literal quote or accent mark, follow that dead key with Space. A Swedish layout gives letters direct positions, but changes US punctuation. ### Alt codes and character tools Hold Alt, type the code on the numeric keypad, then release Alt: **å** 0229; **ä** 0228; **ö** 0246; **Å** 0197; **Ä** 0196; **Ö** 0214. Keep the leading zero and enable Num Lock if needed. These are Windows Western character codes, not universal Unicode shortcuts. The top number row will not work; many laptops lack a number pad. Search Start for Character Map to copy a letter. The touch keyboard also offers accented choices when you hold a letter on screen; its choices depend on the active layout. Both interrupt typing. In Word for Windows, type 00E5, then press Alt + X for **å**. Word also has Insert → Symbol. These methods do not work in every app. Microsoft's [character-code guide](https://support.microsoft.com/word/insert-ascii-or-unicode-character-codes-in-word) lists codes and their limits. ## On Linux Add a Swedish layout in GNOME's Keyboard settings or KDE's keyboard layout settings. US international variants keep the main US letters and add dead keys or AltGr combinations. Check the variant's layout display. National layouts move punctuation; dead keys change quotes. Assign an unused key to Compose in your desktop's keyboard options, then press these keys in order: Compose, o, a gives **å**; Compose, ", a gives **ä**; Compose, ", o gives **ö**; Compose, o, A gives **Å**. Compose needs setup and several keystrokes per letter. In GTK apps, Ctrl + Shift + U, then 00E5 and Enter enters **å**. This Unicode method is not universal across Linux apps. Copy letters from GNOME Characters or KDE's KCharSelect if installed. KDE Plasma 6.7 and later can also show a press-and-hold menu when Plasma Keyboard is the virtual keyboard. ## Write Swedish with the US layout [Typeet](/) restores missing letters when you finish a word with a space or punctuation. You keep the English US layout and enter the word without its special letters. For example: You type: > Kan du kopa brod och mjolk pa vagen hem? Typeet writes: > Kan du köpa bröd och mjölk på vägen hem? You type: > Pa lordag aker vi till mormor, foljer du med? Typeet writes: > På lördag åker vi till mormor, följer du med? It checks Swedish and English word-frequency lists and uses nearby words to choose a spelling. It does not fix typing errors or grammar. Check names and words with several spellings. On held-out Tatoeba sentences, Typeet added **97.5% of missing letters** for Swedish. In that test, 99.1% of all words were correct and 99.99% of English words stayed unchanged. Its list contains 160,902 words. Results vary. A separate test of *Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige* by Selma Lagerlöf used 197,675 words with the special letters removed and got 96.9% of words right. Press Backspace immediately after an unwanted fix to undo it. After ten undos of the same word, Typeet leaves that word alone. To switch to another spelling just after a word, press Option + Backspace on Mac or Ctrl + Backspace on Windows and Linux. Typeet works in mail, Slack, Word, browsers and other apps. Terminals and password managers are excluded by default; exclude more in Settings › Apps. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere. Processing stays on your computer. Typeet requires macOS 13 or later, Windows 10 or later, or Linux (.deb and .rpm packages, as an IBus input method on Wayland and X11). On Mac it asks for Accessibility permission on first launch. It is free for 14 days, then costs $19 once. Regional prices can be lower. ## Questions ### How do I type å on a US Mac? Option + A produces å directly on the US layout. Add Shift for Å. Use Option + U followed by a vowel for ä or ö. ### Can I replace Swedish ä and ö with ae and oe? No. Writing ae and oe is a German habit, not a Swedish one. Swedish readers expect å, ä and ö, and dropping the marks can change the word. ### Can I write English in the same message? Yes. Typeet checks both languages and the sentence. Undo an unwanted fix with Backspace immediately afterward.