How to Type Pinyin Tone Marks (ā á ǎ à)

Published October 3, 2026

Pinyin tone marks aren’t on a normal keyboard, but you don’t need special software to type them. This guide shows the quickest way on each device, plus a table you can copy from.

The quickest way of all: if you have the Chinese characters, paste them into the pinyin converter and copy the result. The tone marks come out right, and you don’t have to remember which vowel gets the mark.

Copy and paste: every pinyin vowel with tone marks

1st tone 2nd tone 3rd tone 4th tone
a ā á ǎ à
e ē é ě è
i ī í ǐ ì
o ō ó ǒ ò
u ū ú ǔ ù
ü ǖ ǘ ǚ ǜ
A Ā Á Ǎ À
E Ē É Ě È

Use plain ü when the tone is neutral or when you leave tones out. Not sure which vowel in a syllable gets the mark? See pinyin tone rules.

Mac: the ABC – Extended keyboard

macOS includes a keyboard layout that types all four tone marks. It works like a normal US keyboard, so you can leave it on.

  1. Open System Settings → Keyboard, then under Text Input click Edit…
  2. Click +, choose English, select ABC – Extended and click Add.
  3. Switch to it from the input menu in the menu bar (or with Control+Space).

Then type the shortcut, let go, and type the vowel:

Tone Press Then type Result
1st Option+A a ā
2nd Option+E a á
3rd Option+V a ǎ
4th Option+` a à

The same shortcuts work with e, i, o and u. For ü with a tone mark, copy it from the table above.

Windows

Any app: the symbol panel

Press Windows+. (period) to open the emoji panel, choose the Symbols tab (Ω), then Latin symbols. Click a letter to insert it. This is handy for the occasional word but slow for whole sentences.

Microsoft Word and Outlook: Unicode code + Alt+X

In Word and Outlook, type the four-character code for a letter and then press Alt+X. The code turns into the letter. For example, type 01CE then Alt+X to get ǎ.

1st tone 2nd tone 3rd tone 4th tone
a ā 0101 á 00E1 ǎ 01CE à 00E0
e ē 0113 é 00E9 ě 011B è 00E8
i ī 012B í 00ED ǐ 01D0 ì 00EC
o ō 014D ó 00F3 ǒ 01D2 ò 00F2
u ū 016B ú 00FA ǔ 01D4 ù 00F9
ü ǖ 01D6 ǘ 01D8 ǚ 01DA ǜ 01DC

Plain ü is 00FC. If the letter before the code is also a valid hex digit (a–f or 0–9), select just the code before pressing Alt+X.

iPhone and Android

Phone keyboards let you press and hold a vowel to pick an accented version, but the menu usually doesn’t include every tone mark. The 3rd-tone letters (ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ) are the ones most often missing. On a phone, these are the reliable options:

Tone marks or tone numbers?

Tone marks are what you’ll see in textbooks, so they’re best for anything you publish or print. Tone numbers are faster to type and work in any app or font, which makes them great for notes, chat and flashcards. The converter can output either: choose nǐ hǎo or ni3 hao3 under Tones as.