Ever struggled with wanting to type an Irish “fada” on your keyboard?
Here you can watch videos on how to type the acute accent mark found in the Irish language (Gaeilge). Terry Simons in California recorded these step-by-step. The videos cover typing on iOS, OS X, Windows and Ubuntu.
Background: the síneadh fada is the name given to the accent mark in Irish:
á é í ó ú Á É Í Ó Ú
How to type the Irish Fada in OS X (Apple Mac)
How To Type The Irish Fada On IOS (IPhone, IPad)
How To Type The Irish Fada In Windows 8
Irish Fada In Linux (Ubuntu 13.04)
Extra Tip: If You’re In Ireland
If you’re in Ireland, your keyboard should already be configured to be for Ireland. In that case, on a PC, just hold down Ctrl and Alt and type the letter.
Alternatively, this might work too:
Hold the alt key down and for the lower case: alt+ 0225= á, 0233=é, 0237=í, 0243= ó, 0250=ú. For the upper case use atl+0193=Á, 0201=É, 0205= Í, 0211=Ó, 0218=Ú.
No Idea How To Pronounce The Fada?
- Listen to audio recordings in our bitesize Lesson: Pronouncing long vowels (if you don’t have an account, just sign up on that page for a free trial)
- Get our popular Pronunciation Cheat Sheets for Irish. They include our four-step method for pronouncing any Irish word you come across.
- Use our up-to-now secret Unravel Irish Pronunciation tool that automatically estimates how to pronounce any single word in Irish.
Got questions on typing the fada on your keyboard? Leave a comment below.
10 thoughts on “Video guides: How to type the Irish fada on your keyboard”
hallo here is john refreshing my irish after over 60 years and in the secondary i gained a STAR for speaking the irish language then stp the FADA should be included easy in each course so as not to interrupt the flow stp what do you think? john
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b-PPObIQ0U
Here is a screen shot video tutorial on installing and using the traditional Irish alphabet on a Mac..
We’re not running on Ubuntu (Linux) 20.4, Eoin. I’m going to figure out how to change it on this system and I can repost that if you like.
Sorry meant now running on 20.4
Go cinnte, definitely Mara!
I really like speaking but I struggle in the learning of it .
Derek
I have Windows 10 and could I use the same video for Windows 8? As I’m having problems on getting the Irish Fada to work when I need to write in Irish.
Thank you
Hi Gloria,
Yes, I think it should work for Windows 10. Let me know if it does!
Gabrielle
Dia dhuit a chara,
and what would you suggest for the AZERTY keyboard that I have ? and another question, why aren’t there fadas already on the Irish keyboard just as there French accents on my keyboard – é è ç à ä ë ï ù â ê î – etc ? I see that on the first Irish typewriters there were keys for letters with fadas. If they could do it then, why can’t they do it now ?
Is mise le meas
franc 91
Good question, franc. If you’re changing the keyboard layout, you would have to “guess” which keys map to other keys. I think that’s the complication of re-mapping layouts, right?
> and another question, why aren’t there fadas already on the Irish keyboard just as there French accents on my keyboard – é è ç à ä ë ï ù â ê î – etc ?
I agree! That being said, all Irish keyboard type the fada by simply typing Ctrl+Alt. That’s a “hidden feature”, I agree, but many people seem to be able to do it. But I still agree with you.