# Why am I getting non-English accents when I am writing in English **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 2, 2015, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-getting-non-english-accents-when-i-am-writing-in-english/711595 "2015-02-02T11:11:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-getting-non-english-accents-when-i-am-writing-in-english/711595/1 "2015-02-02T11:11:36Z")
Windows 8, in Notepad. I am trying to write, È to my sisterès kids OK, this all tells me something. How can I get my keyboard back to normal American EnglishÉ With question marks and without diacriticals Help! ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-getting-non-english-accents-when-i-am-writing-in-english/711595/2 "2015-02-02T11:12:26Z")
Change your keyboard setting in Control Panel. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-getting-non-english-accents-when-i-am-writing-in-english/711595/3 "2015-02-02T11:20:30Z")
Tried that. Trying it again. Billès car… (Where the hell did that come from when I hot the apostrophe keyÉ) Nope. Maybe a reboot is needed. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-getting-non-english-accents-when-i-am-writing-in-english/711595/4 "2015-02-02T11:25:10Z")
Read [this](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/97738) and all will become clear. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-getting-non-english-accents-when-i-am-writing-in-english/711595/5 "2015-02-02T11:41:03Z")
Thanks, Bob, but I’m not trying to use any accents at all. I want to write in English, which doesn’t use them. Can I ask a question? Is that a question mark? Doesn’t, hasn’t, isn’t… They work. Looks like a reboot was all it took. OK, next question: why would MS Windows think I wanted to write in something other than English? (I’ve only ever written English on this computer.) Why would it prevent me from writing English? Well, maybe not prevent, but why would it sub non-English diacriticals for apostrophes, etc.? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-getting-non-english-accents-when-i-am-writing-in-english/711595/6 "2015-02-02T12:09:42Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Thanks, Bob, but I’m not trying to use any accents at all. I want to write in English, which doesn’t use them. > > Can I ask a question? Is that a question mark? > > Doesn’t, hasn’t, isn’t… They work. Looks like a reboot was all it took. > > OK, next question: why would MS Windows think I wanted to write in something other than English? (I’ve only ever written English on this computer.) Why would it prevent me from writing English? Well, maybe not prevent, but why would it sub non-English diacriticals for apostrophes, etc.? Read Bob’s link again, he’s not saying you were trying to write accents, he’s saying that the settings described in that link have been accidentally enabled on your computer. The result is that some characters such as ’ when typed will wait for the next character to be typed, if the next character is eligible for an accent then it will get the accent, if it is not then you get the apostrophe you really wanted. In short, you need to make sure you are NOT using the US-international keyboard layout. As for why the computer thought you wanted to use that layout? Because something, most likely you by accident, told it you did. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-getting-non-english-accents-when-i-am-writing-in-english/711595/7 "2015-02-02T12:53:54Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Looks like a reboot was all it took. My experience is that when my computer starts doing something totally illogical – and that’s not quite the same as malfunctioning – rebooting almost always fixes it. The OP’s keyboard is a good example. Another happened twice last week at work: I have a combination printer/scanner, and it suddenly decided that it can’t scan stuff and save to the pc, because the pc was disconnected. Or so the scanner claimed, despite the fact that I had no trouble printing to it from the pc. Obviously, the device WAS connected to the pc. Instead of wasting time reinstalling the drivers and such, I rebooted, and everyone is talking to each other again. ---
**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2015, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-getting-non-english-accents-when-i-am-writing-in-english/711595/8 "2015-02-02T13:20:41Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Windows 8, in Notepad. > > I am trying to write, È > > to my sisterès kids > > OK, this all tells me something. How can I get my keyboard back to normal American EnglishÉ > > With question marks and without diacriticals > > Help! It sounds like someone switched the keyboard layout on you. Do you have kids that might be studying a foreign language, French perhaps? If you go to desktop view, look down near the clock. Do you see anything that looks like it might be an abbreviated language name (ENG, SPA, FRE)? If so, you should just be able to click on it, or hit alt+shift to change the language back to English. If that isn’t there, someone might have changed the default layout altogether, rather than adding a new one. You need to go to Control Panel (just start typing _control_ at the start screen) and have a look at the _Language_ settings. You should see English in one of the big boxes in the middle, and next to it should be the words _Keyboard layout_, followed by a layout. If that is anything but _United States_, or wherever it is you live, you need to click on _options_ to change it. By the way, Microsoft actually has a utility for [creating your own keyboard layout](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.aspx). ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-getting-non-english-accents-when-i-am-writing-in-english/711595/9 "2015-02-03T01:51:58Z")
Left ALT+SHIFT changes the keyboard layout. Its annoying, my computer seemed to be randomly switching to Canadian Multilingual or French. Pretty sure it was due to accidentally typing this shortcut. You can disable the shortcut and also remove keyboard layouts you do not want in the Languages menu of Control Panel.