Windows – How to type French-specific characters on a standard US keyboard on Windows using French-Canada layout

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It is often frustrating for learners of French language when it is not possible to type a specific character. Some people cut-and-paste them from MS Word, which has an automatic spellchecker-corrector, some use Alt+nnnn combinations… But this is cumbersome.

The easiest way for a person using MS Windows and owning a Standard-US physical keyboard is to install French (Canada) layout. French(Canada) layout is more convenient to use for previous Standard-US keyboard user comparing to French(France) layout because the vast majority of letters are in the same places as in the Standard-US keyboard (QWERTY – not AZERTY).

The problem is that even in French(Canada) layout some letters are not obvious how to type. Especially so are the letters: æ, œ, ï, ÿ, ë, ù.

But let's formulate the question in a generic form:

How to type the following letters on the French(Canada) keyboard:

à â æ        (à, câlin, æsthésie)       [accent aigu, accent circonflexe, e dans l'a]
ç            (ça)                       [cédille]
è é ê ë      (mère, parlé, être, Noël)  [accent grave, ...]
î ï          (naître, naïve)            [tréma]
ô œ          (côte, œuf)                [e dans l'o]
ù û ü        (où, coûter, capharnaüm)
ÿ            (Croÿ)

I searched on internet but could not find a satisfactory answer.

Best Answer

enter image description here This is the answer applicable to a standard desktop English(US) 104-key keyboard (see picture here: standard ANSI keyboard layout (US)). On laptops (especially with multilingual/international keyboards) it may not work.

Note: You will need to add "français (Canada)" input method (in Control Panel) (also known as "Canadian Multilingual Standard keyboard") and switch to it for this to work, but it will work in any program - not only in MS Word, for example.

à - \           (the key above "Enter", "|" is also shown on it)
â - [, a        (the key right of "P", then "a")
æ - RCtrl+a     (Right-Ctrl together with "a"; Note: Left-Ctrl will not work)
ç - ]           (the key above "Enter")
è - '           (the key left of "Enter", """ is also shown on it)
é - /           (the key left of Right-Shift, "?" is also shown on it)
ê - [, e        (the key right of "P", then "e")
ë - {, e        (Shift together with [, then "e")
î - [, i        (the key right of "P", then "i")
ï - {, i        (Shift together with [, then "i")
ô - [, o        (the key right of "P", then "o")
œ - RCtrl+e     (Right-Ctrl together with "e"; Note: Left-Ctrl will not work)
ù - RAlt+[, u   (Right-Alt together with [, then "u"; Note: Left-Alt will not work)
û - [, u        (the key right of "P", then "u")
ü - {, u        (Shift together with [, then "u")
ÿ - {, y        (Shift together with [, then "y")

The idea is:

  • é è ç à (the most often used letters) - are directly accessible on keyboard.

Other letters are accessible via "[" (square bracket), which works as a modifier.

  • accent circonflexe: use "[" followed by a letter under accent
  • tréma: use Shift"[" followed by a letter under accent
  • accent grave: use Right-Alt"[" followed by a letter under accent

And finally, æ and œ are accessible via Right-Ctrl:

  • æ - RCtrl"a"
  • œ - Rctrl"e"
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