- 3-minute read
- 13th April 2017
The umlaut diacritic mark, also called a diaeresis or trema, is formed by two small dots over a letter, in most cases, a vowel. In the case of the lowercase i, those two dots replace the single dot. The umlaut diacritic marks appear on uppercase and lowercase vowels. The O with two dots or Umlaut Symbol shortcut for Microsoft Word is Ctrl + Shift +;, Shift + O or 00D6, Alt X. These shortcuts work in Microsoft Word Only. To use the O Umlaut symbol shortcut on Windows (for Word), obey the following instructions: Place the insertion pointer in the right place. Dec 05, 2012 My father-in-law has a new computer with the Microsoft Home Office version (a.k.a. Student version); he has problems with quotations in Word: when he tries to type a vowel or a word beginning with a vowel in quotes, ie 'a', he gets a with two dots above it. This only happens on words which begin with a vowel. Two ways to Type o with 2 dots on Mac The fastest way to type symbols on Mac is to use the Alt Code keyboard shortcut by pressing down the Option (or Alt) key whilst pressing the Mac alt code. However, another option involved pressing and holding the o key until the accented versions, including the O Umlaut, pop up. My father-in-law has a new computer with the Microsoft Home Office version (a.k.a. Student version); he has problems with quotations in Word: when he tries to type a vowel or a word beginning with a vowel in quotes, ie 'a', he gets a with two dots above it. This only happens on words which begin with a vowel.
For those who struggle for brevity in writing, using bullet points and numbered lists can help ensure clarity. And they are particularly good when giving examples or outlining a process.
Thankfully, Microsoft Word makes it easy to add these to your work.
Using Bullet Points
Bullet points are generally used when listing things non-sequentially (i.e. when the order doesn’t matter). As a general rule, though, bullet points aren’t used for lists of less than four items, since these lists can be included in the main text of your document.
To insert a bullet pointed list when using Microsoft Word 2010 or later:
- Place the cursor where you want to add the list.
- In the ‘Home’ tab, find the bullet point button under ‘Paragraph’.
- If you’re happy with the default bullet point type, click the icon.
- If you want a specific style of bullet, click the arrow and select one from the menu.
- Write the first item in your list, then press ‘Enter’ to add a new bullet.
- To finish your list, press ‘Enter’ twice after the final item.
If you really want to mix things up, you can even use custom images as bullet points!
Using Numbered Lists
Numbered lists are used when you want to list items sequentially or in order of importance. The way to do this is very similar to inserting bullet points:
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- Place the cursor where you want to start the list.
- Under the ‘Home’ tab, find the ‘Numbering’ button.
- To use the default number type, simply click the icon.
- To select a custom numbering system, click the arrow for more choices.
- Write the first item in your list, then press ‘Enter’ to move to the next one.
- To finish the list, press ‘Enter’ twice after writing the final item.
For more customisation, you can also play with the ‘Define New Number Format’ options.
Using Multilevel Lists
If you’re feeling extra adventurous, you can even use a ‘multilevel’ list. This is especially useful if you want to include sub-lists within your main list.
To create a multilevel list:
- Place the cursor where you want to start the list.
- In the ‘Home’ tab, click the ‘Multilevel list’ icon or select a list style from the menu.
- Write your list as normal until you want to include a sub-list.
- Add a new point in your list. At this point you have two options:
- Press ‘Tab’ button on the next line. The line will indent itself and use the next list level in the style you have selected each time you press tab.
- In the bullet point, numbered list or multilevel list menus, select the level you want to use with the ‘Change list level’ option.
And for more control, click ‘Define New Multilevel List’ in the ‘Multilevel list’ menu. Fallout of nevada save editor. Here, you can change the settings for the different levels of a multilevel list.
Level: Beginner
If you're a native English speaker just starting out on your journey to learn a foreign language, then dots and accents and hats over and under letters can be an intimidating aspect of foreign languages. Not to mention that some languages are written in completely different scripts.
Let's first take a look at how these diacritics play a role in helping the native speakers of those languages, and once we have the basic concepts down, you'll be able to apply what you know in even learning languages written in different scripts.
A language's writing system, which we call an orthography, is best suited for native speakers of that language, not for learners of the language. In most cases, what feels most natural and best suited for them may not make a lot of sense to the learner. This is because you grew up learning different norms for how to write.
You may have noticed how English spelling doesn't make a lot of sense most of the time. First, you have a lot of silent letters, like {-e} at the end of words as in 'like', and {gh} in the middle of words as in 'light'. And if I write 'lik' you'll be quick to point out it's not valid and should be 'lick', yet 'lit' is fine.
Many languages have old writing systems that haven't been updated in a long time and therefore are written quite differently than how they're currently spoken. But a lot of languages continue to make updates and changes every hundred years or so. These languages are the ones that are most likely to add a few diacritics to help make things clearer and make things more regular.
For example, I could reform English spelling right now, änd yuw majt ivn bi ebl të gês wët lêtërs ajm jusîng fër wët sawnds. As you can see, a reform of adding diacritics could make a language very regular in spelling.
Since English has twelve vowel sounds but only five roman letters with which to write all those vowel sounds, we have quite a few ingenious ways to represent them, often by using double letters like 'ea' and 'ou'. English probably acquired such practice from the French language which still does likewise.
One of the best universal ways to represent the true value of every sound in every human language is to use the International Phonetic Alphabet. Plugin sketchup 1001bit tools for sketchup. This alphabet, based on Roman and Greek letters is used by scientists and linguists to analyze any language.
Historically speaking, the letters {ä}{ö}{ü} first appeared with an {e} written above the letters (which I've seen still on German signs). Over time, they simplified to two dots.
Among European languages there are two kinds of dots that appear over letters. The first kind is called an umlaut which applies a sound change to the base letter. The second kind is called a diæresis which is required in languages that normally uses two letters to represent one sound, as in English naïve or coöperate (as is still used by the New Yorker magazine), and is used not to change the letter, but to keep it pronounced separately.
The most common languages where you will encounter umlauts is in the northern languages of Europe. These languages (like Danish) are known for having more vowels than most other languages on earth. It's quite rare, but they use the same alphabet and need more letters to represent all these sounds.
Most languages follow the same general rules, but may switch letters around for what they are used to.
letter {ä}
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
German | /ɛː/ also written {ae} |
Luxembourgish | /æ/ |
Swedish | /ɛː/ |
Finnish | /æ/ |
Estonian | /æ/ |
Slovak | /æ/ (many pronounce it /e/) |
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
Albanian | /ə/ |
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
Finnish | /ø/ |
German | /øː/ or /œ/ also written {oe} |
Hungarian | /ø/ |
Icelandic | /œ/ |
Swedish | [œ] or [ø] |
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
German | /yː/ or /ʏ/ also written {ue} |
Hungarian | /y/ |
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
Hungarian | /øː/ |
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
Hungarian | /yː/ |
Other Letters that Take Umlaut-y Sounds*
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
Danish | /ɛː/ |
Norwegian | /æ/ |
Faroese | short /a/, long /ɛaː/ |
Icelandic | /ai/ |
French | /e/ in loanwords |
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
Danish | [ʌ] or [ɒ] or [ɔ] |
Norwegian | [ɔ] or [o] |
Swedish | [o] |
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
French | /œ/ or /ø/ |
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
Danish | [ø] or [œ] or [ɶ] |
Norwegian | [œ] or [ø] |
Faroese | short /œ/, long /øː/ |
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
Icelandic | /ʏː/ |
French | /y/ |
Norwegian | [ɵ] or [ʉ] |
Swedish | [ɵ] or [ʉ] |
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
Danish | /yːˀ/ |
Finnish | /y/ |
Norwegian | short /ʏ/, long /y/ |
Swedish | [ʏ] or [y] |
These aren't umlauts! They're diæreses*!
Language | IPA Sound |
---|---|
French | /ə/ |