One of the most annoying things I run across when I write in Spanish is the special characters: accent marks, punctuation, and letters like ‘ñ' that don't exist in English.
When I'm typing in Spanish I often get corrected on my punctuation. In context, you will be understood but it's best to type correctly. Most of the time I know that I need the accent mark but am too lazy to figure out how to type it.
If you're writing online, you can use my Spanish Characters Keyboard for free. Just type in your text, include special characters, and copy and paste to wherever you want to save your content. Check it out.
You can also use these shortcuts in Office. For accented vowels, hold down the Ctrl key, then press the single quote (‘) then the vowel. For example, Ctrl ‘ a to type á. (refer here if you have a Mac). To type capital letters, press the shift key before the vowel (Ctrl ‘ Shift vowel).
My phone is the easiest — I installed a Spanish keyboard and the characters come up on the virtual keyboard. This is also great because auto-correct gives me words I may not know how to spell perfectly or know where to put the accents.
Happy typing!
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¡Hola! My name is Tamara Marie. I'm a language coach specializing in brain-friendly methods to learn foreign languages faster. I speak English (US native), Spanish (advanced), and Brazilian Portuguese (beginner). I'm a Latin music & dance addict and passionate about helping people learn languages.
