Dead Keys

A dead key is a key that when pressed by itself produces no output character but only works in conjunction with another key, effectively changing the output of the key that is pressed immediately after the dead key. For example, dead keys commonly are used when inputting characters with accent marks; the dead key is pressed, which indicates that the next letter input by the keyboard will appear with the accent mark. ※

The International keyboard and the Typographer keyboard have five dead keys (`, ‘, ~, “, ^), that can be used in combination with letters to produce special characters, as shown in this table:

  a e i o u c n y A E I O U C N Y
' á é í ó ú ç   ý Á É Í Ó Ú Ç   Ý
" ä ë ï ö ü     ÿ Ä Ë Ï Ö Ü
` à è ì ò ù       À È Ì Ò Ù
~ ã     õ     ñ   Ã     Õ     Ñ
^ â ê î ô û       Â Ê Î Ô Û