How to Actually Type Esperanto: The Hatted Six on Every Device

Every Esperanto course teaches you ĉ on the first page and then leaves you to work out how to produce one. So you search, and the first answer you find is wrong, and you spend an evening looking at this:

^c^g^h^j^s - what the US-International keyboard actually gives you

This article is the answer per device, and everything in it was checked on the vendor's own documentation rather than repeated from a forum. Where a claim could not be checked it has been dropped rather than softened, and there is a list at the end of what was dropped and why.

The six letters, and where they live

Esperanto has 28 letters, six of which English does not: ĉ ĝ ĥ ĵ ŝ ŭ. Five wear a circumflex, the ĉapelo, and one wears a breve. The alphabet page has the sounds; this is the plumbing.

All six are precomposed characters in Unicode's Latin Extended-A block, added in 1993:

Their Unicode names are the obvious ones, so U+0109 is latin small letter c with circumflex and U+016D is latin small letter u with breve. Worth having if you ever need to search a character-map dialogue, which on Windows is more often than you would like.

Why "precomposed" is worth a sentence. Each of the six can also be built as two characters, a plain letter followed by a combining accent, and the result looks identical on screen. It is not identical to software. A single-character ŝ matches another single-character ŝ in a search box, sorts where the dictionary puts it, and survives being pasted into an old form; a two-character one silently does none of those, and you cannot see which you have. Everything below produces the single-character form, which is the one to want.

Windows

Windows ships no Esperanto keyboard layout. You can add Esperanto as a language in Settings, under Time and language, then Language and region, then Add a language, and this is where a lot of people stop and assume they are done. Nothing comes with it. Microsoft's own support staff put it plainly: there is no official Esperanto language pack.

And the US-International layout does not work. This is the advice given most often and it is simply false for these letters. Its circumflex dead key composes with vowels, and there is no breve dead key at all, so ^ followed by c gives you the caret and the c, side by side, and ŭ is unreachable by any route. Zero of six. If you have tried this and concluded that you are doing it wrong, you were not.

What works: PowerToys Quick Accent. Microsoft's own free utility, and Esperanto is a built-in character set in it. Install PowerToys, open Settings, find Quick Accent, enable it, and tick Esperanto in the character list. Then press and hold a base letter and the picker appears:

Six of six, from a first-party tool, with no custom layout to maintain. This is the recommendation.

In Word only, there is a second route. Type the hex code point and press Alt+X immediately after, so 0109 followed by Alt+X becomes ĉ. It is a Word feature and does not work in Notepad or a browser, so it is a way of fixing one character rather than a way of writing.

Two things not to bother with. The Alt plus numeric keypad codes people post (Alt+0264 and friends) go through the active code page, which does not contain these characters at all, so they do not produce them. And Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator is still downloadable, still at version 1.4, and its own page still lists Windows XP among the supported systems; custom layouts built with it are reported to fall foul of current signing rules. If Quick Accent covers you, and it does, you do not need to build a layout.

Tajpi, the long-standing third-party Windows utility that turns x-system typing into hatted letters live, is what the Esperanto Association of Britain still points Windows users at today. Two honest caveats: its site serves a broken certificate, so your browser will warn you, and no current build could be confirmed as tested on Windows 11. It is a real tool with a real following; it is not the one to try first any more.

macOS

There is no Esperanto input source on a Mac either. There is something better: a layout Apple already ships that does the whole job.

Add ABC Extended in System Settings, under Keyboard, then Input Sources. Then two dead keys cover all six letters:

A dead key produces nothing on its own: press it, let go, then press the letter. Option+6 is the circumflex because the ^ lives over the 6, which makes it easy to remember.

Do not rely on press-and-hold. Holding a key on a Mac offers the accents Apple has decided belong on that letter, and a circumflex over c is not one of them, any more than a breve is on u. ABC Extended is the answer; the popup is a distraction.

If you would rather have a permanent custom layout with the letters where you want them, Ukelele is the editor people build Mac layouts with, it is free, and it is still maintained.

Linux

Linux is the only desktop that actually ships an Esperanto keyboard, and it ships two answers.

The layout. There is a real xkb layout called epo. setxkbmap epo selects it, and it appears in the graphical keyboard settings on the usual desktops. If you write a lot of Esperanto, this is the cleanest thing available on any operating system.

The Compose key, for everything else. Set one first: on GNOME it is in Settings under Keyboard, on KDE under Input Devices and then Keyboard and then Advanced, and the usual choices are the right Alt or the Menu key. Then:

Capitals work the same way with the capital letter. The breve has several sequences in the standard Compose file rather than one: u u works, U u works, and on most systems b u does as well. Use whichever sticks.

And the escape hatch. Under IBus, Ctrl+Shift+U then the hex code point then space inserts any character at all, so Ctrl+Shift+U, 109, space gives ĉ. It works in GTK applications; some terminals swallow the shortcut, and pure Qt applications need IBus to be the active input method.

Android

The easy one. Gboard has Esperanto as a language. Add it in Settings, under System, then Languages and input, then the virtual keyboard, then Gboard, then Languages, then Add keyboard, and pick Esperanto.

What you get is worth more than the letters. Long-pressing the hatless letter now offers the hatted one, so hold c for ĉ, hold u for ŭ, and so on. But you also get prediction and autocorrect that know Esperanto, which means the phone stops fighting you, and that turns out to matter more than the keystrokes do. This is the setup that makes a phone usable for actually writing the language rather than surviving it.

iPhone and iPad

The bad one, and the honest number is zero.

iOS ships no Esperanto keyboard. And unlike almost every other diacritic problem, the long-press trick does not rescue you, because Apple's accent tables simply have nothing to offer here:

Zero of six. So do this instead.

Text Replacement, in Settings, under General, then Keyboard, then Text Replacement. Add one entry per letter, with the shortcut cx expanding to ĉ, gx to ĝ, hx to ĥ, jx to ĵ, sx to ŝ and ux to ŭ. It takes about two minutes and it builds the x-system into the operating system, so you type the way everyone types online and the phone produces the real letters. It works everywhere text goes.

There are also third-party Esperanto keyboards on the App Store, and the national associations link them. They exist and they work; they are small apps with thin ratings rather than polished ones. Try Text Replacement first, because it costs nothing and cannot go stale.

The web, and other people's computers

For a machine you cannot install anything on:

• TypeIt, at esperanto.typeit.org, gives you a text box with Alt-key shortcuts (Alt+C for ĉ, Alt+U for ŭ) and clickable buttons, then you copy the result out. It is part of a long-running multi-language tool and it works in the browser with nothing installed.
• Iksumilo, the Esperanto Association of Britain's own converter, takes x-system text and hands back the real letters with a copy button. Same idea, one step simpler.

For typing x-system straight into any web page, browser extensions exist that convert as you type; there is one listed on the Chrome Web Store under the name Esperanto x-system Converter, and Esperaboard is an open-source one built to work on language-learning sites. Both are third-party volunteer projects, which is the category most likely to have gone quiet by the time you read this, so check before trusting one with anything long.

Autocorrect is the enemy, and here is how to disarm it

The letters are half the problem. The other half is a device that has never heard of Esperanto quietly rewriting it.

• Firefox and Chrome. No dedicated Esperanto dictionary add-on turned up in either store, but the LanguageTool extension supports Esperanto and runs in both, which is the practical answer for anything you write in a browser.
• LibreOffice. There is a proper extension: an Esperanto spellchecker, thesaurus and hyphenator, installable from the LibreOffice extensions site. After installing, set the document language under Tools, then Options, then Language Settings, then Languages.
• Microsoft Word. No Esperanto proofing language exists, and there is no language pack coming. Word will red-underline every word you write and offer to correct several of them into English. The realistic move is to turn proofing off for Esperanto text rather than to fight it.
• The phones. Android solves this properly once you add the Gboard language. On iOS, if autocorrect keeps mangling you, Settings, General, Keyboard, and turn Auto-Correction off for the duration.

The x-system is input, not spelling

This is the distinction the whole subject turns on, and it is where most of the confusion comes from.

The h-system is the Fundamento's own and is the one with official standing: ch, gh, hh, jh, sh, and a bare u for ŭ. The x-system is unofficial and has won: cx, gx, hx, jx, sx, ux.

x won because it is not a letter of the Esperanto alphabet, so cx can only ever mean one thing and converts back mechanically. h is a real letter, so flughaveno contains an honest g followed by an honest h and no converter can tell that seam from a ĝ. That is why word lists, dictionaries and this site's own URLs run on x: /esperanto/words/sxi cannot be misread.

But neither is a spelling. The Akademio's 2007 position is that a substitute is a technical expedient, permitted where the real letters are impractical, and not a change to the orthography. So the working rule is:

Type x. Publish hats.

Use the x-system in a search box, in a filename, in a chat window with somebody who has the same converter, and while you are getting a first draft out of your fingers. Convert before anybody reads it. The full argument, with the Akademio's wording, is in orthography and punctuation, and the case of ĥ specifically, where hh is genuinely ambiguous, is in the ĥ question.

Literumi: saying it out loud

Sooner or later somebody asks how you spell your name, and Esperanto's answer is as regular as everything else. The vowels name themselves; every consonant is its sound plus an o. So the alphabet recites:

a, bo, co, ĉo, do, e, fo, go, ĝo, ho, ĥo, i, jo, ĵo, ko, lo, mo, no, o, po, ro, so, ŝo, to, u, ŭo, vo, zo

ŭ is ŭo, hat and all, and it is a separate letter from u, which is simply u. PMEG's advice is blunt and worth taking: stay with the Fundamental names, because they are the only ones every Esperanto speaker knows.

One technical point PMEG makes that is easy to miss: the o on a consonant name is a pronunciation helper, not the noun ending. It is there because b on its own is not pronounceable, and it does not drop when you add anything, so a plural is b-oj rather than a bare bj.

Is there an Esperanto radio alphabet? Not officially, and it is worth saying so, because you will find lists presented as though there were. Several have been proposed by individuals, they disagree with each other, and no body has adopted one. The nearest thing to an attested list is the one PMEG records as being used by the UEA:

Universo-hoko, universe-hook, for ŭ is the giveaway that this is a homemade list rather than a standard: no designed alphabet names a letter after another letter plus a description of its accent. Use it if it helps, and do not present it as official. Esperanto-speaking radio amateurs, as it happens, are required by the international amateur radio body to use the ordinary alfa-bravo-charlie alphabet like everybody else.

In practice, most conversations do not need any of this. You say the letter names, and if the hat is what is in doubt you say ĉapelita and the person writes the hat.

What was dropped

A wrong keystroke costs more than a missing one, so these were checked and left out:

• Ek!, the veteran Windows utility, whose own documentation stops at Windows Vista and whose latest release is from 2010. If it still runs for you, keep it; it is not something to send a beginner to now.
• Alt plus numpad decimal codes for these characters. They go through the active code page and it does not contain them.
• A specific Windows 11 version of Tajpi. The tool is real and still recommended by national associations; the version claim could not be confirmed from the source that makes it.
• Any Google Docs keystroke. Word's Alt+X is documented; nothing equivalent for Docs could be confirmed, so nothing is claimed.
• Several web converters and one Android keyboard that turn up in old link lists and could not be shown to be alive. Esperanto link lists rot faster than most, because the people maintaining them eventually stop.

What to take away

• The six letters are precomposed characters in Latin Extended-A: ĉ U+0109, ĝ U+011D, ĥ U+0125, ĵ U+0135, ŝ U+015D, ŭ U+016D. Store the single character, not a letter plus a combining accent.
• Windows: PowerToys Quick Accent with Esperanto ticked. Six of six. The US-International layout gives none of the six and Windows has no Esperanto layout at all.
• macOS: ABC Extended, then Option+6 and the consonant, or Option+B and u. Six of six. Press-and-hold does not help.
• Linux: the epo xkb layout, the only real Esperanto keyboard any desktop ships, or Compose ^ c and Compose u u.
• Android: add Esperanto in Gboard. You get the long-press letters and, more usefully, prediction that stops fighting you.
• iOS: long-press reaches zero of six. Build the x-system into Text Replacement instead.
• Nothing installed: esperanto.typeit.org, or the EAB's Iksumilo converter.
• Spellcheck: LanguageTool in the browser, the LibreOffice extension on the desktop, and nothing at all in Microsoft Word.
• x is input, ĉ is spelling. Type x, publish hats.
• Spelling aloud: a, bo, co, ĉo, do... and ŭo for ŭ. The o is a pronunciation helper, not a noun ending. There is no official Esperanto radio alphabet.

See also

• The alphabet - all 28 letters, their sounds, and the stress rule.
• Orthography and punctuation - the h-system against the x-system in full, and the Akademio's 2007 ruling.
• The ĥ question - why hh is ambiguous and hx is not, and the letter that keeps nearly dying.
• Who decides what is correct Esperanto? - the Fundamento and the Akademio, whose rulings this page keeps citing.
• Personal names in Esperanto - the other place letter-by-letter spelling earns its keep.
• tajpi, kodo, literumi and pasvorto - the four words from this chapter's band that this page is built out of.