Ú / ú (U With Acute Accent): How to Type and Copy It
The letter ú is a u with an acute accent, the stroke leaning right. It turns up in Spanish (menú, común), Irish, Czech, Hungarian, and Portuguese. It isn’t on an English keyboard, so this page gives you the quickest way to type it on any device, a click-to-copy grid, and the thing people get wrong most often: how ú differs from ü, the u with two dots.
If you just need the character, copy ú (or the capital Ú) from the grid below. If you want the shortcuts, or to understand what the accent is doing, the sections after it cover both.
In a hurry?
- Copy it: click ú in the grid below.
- On Windows: hold Alt and type 0250 (capital Ú is 0218).
- On a Mac: press Option + E, then u.
- On a phone: press and hold the u key and choose ú.
- In Word: press Ctrl + ‘ (apostrophe), then u.
Table of Contents
Copy and paste ú
The accented u in both cases, with the codes you’re likely to need. Use the grid above to copy with one click; this table is the reference.
| Character | Unicode | Windows | Mac | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ú | U+00FA | Alt + 0250 | Option + E, u | ú |
| Ú | U+00DA | Alt + 0218 | Option + E, Shift + U | Ú |
How to type ú on any device
Type ú on Windows
Turn on Num Lock, hold Alt, and type 0250 on the numeric keypad for ú, or 0218 for the capital Ú. The US-International keyboard also lets you press an apostrophe then u to get ú directly.
Type ú on Mac
Press Option + E (nothing appears yet, that arms the acute accent), then press u, and ú appears. For the capital, do Option + E, then Shift + u.
Type ú on iPhone and Android
Press and hold the u key on the keyboard. A row of accented options pops up; slide onto ú and lift your finger. The same long-press also shows ü, so pick the acute, not the two-dot version.
Type ú in Microsoft Word
Press Ctrl + ‘ (the apostrophe key), release, then press u for ú. You can also type 00FA then Alt + X, or use Alt + 0250.
Type ú on Linux
Press Ctrl + Shift + U, type 00fa, then Enter. With a Compose key, Compose then ‘ then u also makes ú.
Type ú in HTML and CSS
In HTML, ú is ú or the numeric ú (capital Ú is Ú). In CSS, a literal ú in a content value is the escaped code point \00FA.
ú vs ü: the acute is not the diaeresis
This is the mix-up that catches almost everyone, and it’s worth being crystal clear: ú and ü are different letters with different jobs. The ú has a single stroke (the acute) and, in Spanish, marks stress. The ü has two dots (a diaeresis) and does something completely different — it tells you to pronounce a u that would otherwise be silent.
In Spanish this matters in the combinations güe and güi. Normally the u in gue and gui is silent (as in guitarra, “gitarra”). Put the two dots on it, ü, and the u comes back to life: pingüino (“peen-gwee-no”), vergüenza (“ver-gwen-sa”), bilingüe. So ü is a pronunciation switch, while ú is a stress mark. Grabbing the wrong one changes the word.
| Letter | Mark | Job in Spanish | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ú | acute (one stroke) | marks stress | menú |
| ü | diaeresis (two dots) | revives a silent u | pingüino |
If your word is about emphasis on the u, you want ú; if it’s about making the u audible after g, you want ü. The full two-dot family is covered in the umlaut letters guide.
What the accent on ú means by language
The same stroke does different jobs depending on the language.
| Language | What ú does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | marks the stressed syllable | menú (menu) |
| Portuguese | stressed syllable | baú (chest) |
| Irish | long vowel (fada) | tú (you) |
| Czech / Slovak | long oo sound | dům (house) |
| Hungarian | long u | út (road) |
ú in Spanish: stress and the silent u
Spanish is where ú does its main work, marking a stressed final syllable that breaks the default pattern: menú, común, Perú, tabú. Words ending in a vowel, n, or s are normally stressed on the second-to-last syllable, so when the stress lands on a final u instead, the accent is required.
There’s a twist unique to the letter u: sometimes u is silent on purpose. After q and g, a plain u is often just a spelling device and isn’t pronounced — queso (“keso”), guitarra (“gitarra”). That silent u never takes an acute. When you do want that u pronounced, you use the two-dot ü, not ú. So the acute ú only appears on a u that is both sounded and stressed — never on the silent u in que or gui.
ú vs ù, û, ü, ũ: the five accented u’s
The u carries five different marks across languages, and each is a distinct letter. The acute ú (this page) marks stress or a long u. The grave ù leans the other way, common in French (où) and Italian. The circumflex û, the hat, appears in French. The diaeresis ü, two dots, revives a silent u in Spanish and is a rounded vowel in German and Turkish. The tilde ũ, the wave, is rare, used in some languages for a nasal or long u.
| Letter | Accent | Used in |
|---|---|---|
| ú | acute | Spanish, Irish, Czech |
| ù | grave | French, Italian |
| û | circumflex | French |
| ü | diaeresis | Spanish (güe), German, Turkish |
| ũ | tilde | rare / phonetic |
ú in code, URLs, and domain names
In a URL, ú is percent-encoded as %C3%BA (its two UTF-8 bytes), so a page about menú might appear as men%C3%BA. In code, the escape is \u00FA in JavaScript, Java, JSON, and Python.
Domains can include ú through internationalized domain names (IDN), converted behind the scenes to an ASCII Punycode form starting xn--; browsers sometimes show that form as an anti-phishing safeguard. And if ú ever renders as ú or a box, the fix is to serve everything as UTF-8.
Copy-paste HTML codes
Every code for the acute-accented u in one place. Click a cell and copy.
| Character | Named entity | Numeric entity | URL (percent) code |
|---|---|---|---|
| ú | ú | ú | %C3%BA |
| Ú | Ú | Ú | %C3%9A |
In a CSS content value, use \00FA for ú. For the rest of the accented vowels, see [a with acute](/a-with-acute/), [o with acute](/o-with-acute/), and the [letters with accents](/letters-with-accents/) hub.
Troubleshooting
My ú shows as ú or a box
That’s an encoding mismatch: the UTF-8 bytes for ú are being read as an older encoding. Set the file, database, and page charset to UTF-8 and ú displays correctly.
I got ü instead of ú
You picked the two-dot version. ú has one stroke and marks stress; ü has two dots and revives a silent u. Copy the correct ú from the grid above.
Alt + 0250 isn’t working
Make sure Num Lock is on and you’re using the numeric keypad, not the top-row numbers. On a laptop without a keypad, use Windows + . and search, or copy ú from the grid above.
FAQ
How do I type ú?
On Windows, hold Alt and type 0250. On a Mac, press Option + E then u. On a phone, long-press the u key. In Word, press Ctrl + ‘ then u. Or click ú in the grid above.
What’s the difference between ú and ü?
ú has one stroke (an acute) and marks stress in Spanish. ü has two dots (a diaeresis) and makes an otherwise-silent u pronounced, as in pingüino. They’re different letters with different jobs.
When does Spanish use ú?
On a stressed final u that breaks the default stress pattern, like menú, común, and Perú. It never goes on the silent u in que or gui.
How do I write ú in HTML?
Use ú or ú (capital Ú is Ú). In a URL, ú is %C3%BA.
