Symbols

Ï / ï (I With Umlaut / Diaeresis): How to Type and Copy It

ByGlenda Jnku

Copy and paste ï

The two-dot i 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	Name	Unicode	Windows	Mac	HTML
ï	i with diaeresis (lower)	U+00EF	Alt + 0239	Option + u, i	ï
Ï	I with diaeresis (upper)	U+00CF	Alt + 0207	Option + u, Shift + I	Ï

The two dots aren’t on an English keyboard, so ï takes a shortcut, a code, or a copy. The sections below cover each device, then what those dots actually mean.

How to type ï on any device

Type ï on Windows

Turn on Num Lock, hold Alt, and type 0239 on the numeric keypad for ï, or 0207 for the capital Ï. The US-International keyboard also lets you press the double-quote key then i to get ï directly.

Type ï on Mac

Press Option + u (this arms the two-dot diaeresis), then press i, and ï appears. For the capital, do Option + u, then Shift + i. The same Option + u works for the other two-dot letters: ä, ë, ö, ü.

Type ï on iPhone and Android

Press and hold the i key on the keyboard. A row of accented options pops up; slide onto ï and lift your finger. The same long-press also shows í and î, so pick the one with two dots.

Type ï in Microsoft Word

Press Ctrl + Shift + : (Ctrl, Shift, and the colon key), release, then press i for ï. You can also type 00EF then Alt + X, or use Alt + 0239.

Type ï on Linux

Press Ctrl + Shift + U, type 00ef, then Enter. With a Compose key, Compose then “ (double quote) then i also makes ï.

Type ï in HTML and CSS

In HTML, ï is ï or the numeric ï (capital Ï is Ï). In CSS, a literal ï in a content value is the escaped code point \00EF.

Umlaut vs diaeresis: same two dots, two different jobs

Here’s the fact that no keyboard guide explains: the two dots on ï can be either of two marks that happen to look identical. They share a glyph but do opposite things, and on the letter i it’s almost always the second one.

An umlaut (German) changes a vowel’s sound: a becomes ä, a different vowel entirely. A diaeresis (French, Dutch, English) does the reverse — it keeps two vowels apart so they’re pronounced as separate sounds instead of blending into one. German has no ï, so when you see two dots on an i, it’s a diaeresis: in naïve it stops ai from becoming a single “ay” and forces “na-eev.” Same dots, but the umlaut merges a sound and the diaeresis splits one.

Mark	Language	Job	Example
Umlaut	German	changes the vowel sound	ä, ö, ü
Diaeresis	French, Dutch	splits two vowels apart	naïve, ï

So calling ï an “umlaut” is a friendly misnomer — the shape is the same, but its job on an i is to say “pronounce me separately.” The full two-dot family, including the true German umlauts, is covered in the umlaut letters guide.

The ï in naïve, and English’s disappearing diaeresis

The most familiar ï in English is naïve (and naïveté). The two dots are doing real work: without them, “naive” invites the reading “nave” or “nive,” but the diaeresis signals that the a and i are separate sounds — na-EEV. A few other borrowed words keep it, like Noël (with ë) and Chloë.

English used to use the diaeresis far more. Old style guides wrote coöperate and reëlect with two dots to show the doubled vowel was two syllables, not a long one. Almost everyone has dropped it now in favour of a hyphen (co-operate) or nothing (cooperate) — but The New Yorker famously still prints the diaeresis, which is why “coöperate” occasionally surprises readers. The mark is fading from English, but naïve is holding on.

The two dots replace the i’s own dot

A small detail worth noticing: a normal i already has a dot on top, called a tittle. When you add the diaeresis, the two dots take the tittle’s place — ï doesn’t have three dots stacked up. It’s the same rule that applies when you put an accent on an i (í, ì, î): the mark on top replaces the single dot rather than sitting above it.

So ï is really “i, but with two dots instead of one.” That’s why it looks balanced rather than cluttered, and it’s a nice reminder that the little dot on i and j is a design element with its own name and its own rules.

What ï means by language

The two dots do the diaeresis job across several languages; here are the main ones.

Language	What ï does	Example
French	splits a vowel pair	naïve, maïs
Dutch	marks a new syllable	geïnteresseerd
Catalan	breaks a diphthong	raïm (grape)
English	separate vowels (rare)	naïve

The heavy metal umlaut: röck döts

You can’t talk about two-dot letters without the heavy metal umlaut — the dots that bands sprinkle over letters purely for effect. Mötley Crüe, Motörhead, Blue Öyster Cult: the umlauts there mean nothing phonetically. They’re decoration, meant to look Gothic, Germanic, and a bit dangerous, which is why fans nicknamed them “röck döts.”

It’s the exact opposite of the ï in naïve, where the dots do a real job. On a band logo they’re pure style — and, famously, German speakers would pronounce “Mötley” quite differently than intended. So the same two dots can be a careful pronunciation guide or a purely visual flourish, depending entirely on who put them there and why.

ï in code, URLs, and domain names

In a URL, ï is percent-encoded as %C3%AF (its two UTF-8 bytes), so a page about naïve might appear as na%C3%AFve. In code, the escape is \u00EF in JavaScript, Java, JSON, and Python.

Domains can include ï 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 ï ever renders as ï or a box, the fix is to serve everything as UTF-8.

Copy-paste HTML codes

Every code for the two-dot i in one place. Click a cell and copy.

Character	Named entity	Numeric entity	URL (percent) code
ï	ï	ï	%C3%AF
Ï	Ï	Ï	%C3%8F

In a CSS content value, use \00EF for ï. For the acute i see [i with acute](/i-with-acute/), for the full two-dot family the [umlaut letters](/umlaut-letters/) guide, and for every accented letter the [letters with accents](/letters-with-accents/) hub.

Troubleshooting

My ï shows as a box or garbled text

That’s an encoding mismatch: the UTF-8 bytes for ï are being read as an older encoding. Set the file, database, and page charset to UTF-8 and ï displays correctly.

Option + u just types a u on my Mac

Option + u arms the two dots but shows nothing on its own; you have to press i straight after. If it still fails, your layout may not support dead keys; switch to the standard US or ABC layout.

Alt + 0239 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 ï from the grid above.

FAQ

How do I type ï?

On Windows, hold Alt and type 0239. On a Mac, press Option + u then i. On a phone, long-press the i key. In Word, press Ctrl + Shift + : then i. Or click ï in the grid above.

Is ï an umlaut or a diaeresis?

On the letter i it’s a diaeresis. An umlaut (German) changes a vowel’s sound; a diaeresis keeps two vowels apart, as in naïve. German has no ï, so the two dots on an i are doing the diaeresis job, even though people loosely call it an umlaut.

Why does naïve have two dots?

The diaeresis tells you the a and i are pronounced separately (na-EEV), not blended into one sound. Without it, “naive” invites a wrong reading. It’s the mark doing real pronunciation work.

Do the two dots change the sound?

They tell you to sound the vowel separately from the one before it. They don’t change the i itself; they break it away from a neighbouring vowel so both are heard. In band names like Mötley Crüe the dots are just decoration and mean nothing.

How do I write ï in HTML?

Use ï or ï (capital Ï is Ï). In a URL, ï is %C3%AF.