How to Type Pinyin With Tone Marks on Any Device

1. Open any app where you can type and tap a text field to show the Apple onscreen keyboard.
2. Touch and hold the vowel you want to mark. When the accent choices appear, slide your finger to the tone-marked vowel you want and release.
3. If you use an external Apple keyboard, go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Hardware Keyboard, select your language, then choose ABC Extended. Apple’s ABC Extended layout supports Mandarin Pinyin tone marks.
4. With ABC Extended selected, use Option + A for the 1st tone, Option + E for the 2nd tone, Option + V for the 3rd tone, and Option + ` for the 4th tone.
5. For example, press Option + V, release the keys, then type a to produce ǎ. For a neutral tone, type the vowel normally without a tone mark.

External-keyboard tip: ABC Extended is the better Apple option when you need to type complete tone-marked Pinyin regularly.

1. Choice 1: Press and hold the vowel. Open the app where you want to type Pinyin, then press and hold the vowel you want to mark, such as a.
2. When the accent menu appears, click the marked vowel you want, or press the number shown below it.
3. Choice 2: Use the Option key. Press and hold Option together with the key for the tone mark, then release both keys and type the vowel you want to mark.
4. Use Option + A for the 1st tone, Option + E for the 2nd tone, Option + V for the 3rd tone, and Option + ` for the 4th tone.
5. For example, press Option + V, release the keys, then type a to produce ǎ. For a neutral tone, type the vowel normally without a tone mark.

If the Option-key method does not work: Your Mac may not be using the ABC - Extended input source. Go to System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input, add ABC - Extended, then switch to it before trying the Option-key combinations again.

1. For the fastest no-install method, type numbered Pinyin such as ni3 hao3 and use the converter linked at the bottom of this page.
2. For an individual marked vowel using Windows itself, open Start, search for Character Map, and open it.
3. Find the tone-marked vowel you need, choose Select → Copy, then paste it where you are typing.
4. In Microsoft Word or Outlook, you can also use Insert → Symbol or supported Unicode character-code shortcuts.

Tip: Microsoft Pinyin is the Windows Chinese input method that lets you type Pinyin and choose the matching Chinese characters. It is not meant for typing Pinyin itself with tone marks, such as nǐ hǎo.

1. Open any app where you can type and tap a text field to show your onscreen keyboard.
2. On Gboard, touch and hold a vowel to see available accented forms, then slide to the one you want.
3. If you do not see all the Pinyin tone marks you need, add Gboard’s Alphabet keyboard. Open Gboard Settings → Languages → Add keyboard, select Alphabet, choose the QWERTY layout, then tap Done.
4. Switch to the Alphabet keyboard by touching and holding the space bar and selecting Alphabet. Then touch and hold the vowel you want to mark and slide to the correct tone-marked vowel.

Tip: A Chinese Pinyin keyboard is designed primarily to turn Pinyin into Chinese characters. To type Latin Pinyin with tone marks, use Gboard’s Alphabet keyboard instead.