Œ and Æ ligatures: œ Œ æ Æ

Type œ: Alt + 0156 on Windows, Option+Q on a Mac, or hold O on your phone.

Copy the letters

Click a letter to copy it, then paste it with Ctrl + V (Cmd + V on a Mac).

œ is a single letter made of o and e, as in cœur (heart). æ is its rarer cousin. Careful French writing never replaces them with “oe” or “ae”.

Keyboard shortcuts on a U.S. QWERTY keyboard

Mac: standard U.S. or ABC layout. Windows: the free United States-International layout, or an Alt code with any layout.

  • œMacOption+QWindows—Alt codeAlt + 0156
  • ŒMacOption+Shift+QWindows—Alt codeAlt + 0140
  • æMacOption+'WindowsAltGr+ZAlt codeAlt + 0230
  • ÆMacOption+Shift+'WindowsAltGr+Shift+ZAlt codeAlt + 0198

Mac

Or press and hold O: a menu of accented versions appears.

Windows

Alt codes need a numeric keypad. US-International has no key for some of these letters. Set up US-International.

Phone

Touch and hold O on the keyboard, then slide to the letter you want.

When to use œ, æ in French

œ is common: cœur (heart), sœur (sister), œuf (egg), œil (eye), œuvre (work). Writing “coeur” is understood but counts as a typo in careful text.

æ only appears in a few words borrowed from Latin (ex æquo, curriculum vitæ) and in names such as Lætitia.

The Windows US-International layout has no key for œ: use the Alt code (Alt + 0156 on the numeric keypad) or copy it from this page.

  • œ · cœur, sœur, œuf
  • Œ · Œuvre
  • æ · ex æquo, curriculum vitæ
  • Æ · Lætitia

Typing French every day?

The free Chrome extension opens every French accent with Ctrl + Shift + E on any website: no codes to remember.

See the Chrome extension

Frequently asked questions

Hold Alt and type 0156 on the numeric keypad (Num Lock on), then release Alt: œ appears. The number row above the letters does not work, so most laptops need another method.

On a U.S. or ABC keyboard, press Option + Q. You can also press and hold the O key and pick œ from the menu that appears.

Touch and hold the O key on the on-screen keyboard: its accented versions appear above it. Slide to œ and release.

Yes. The Académie française recommends keeping accents on capitals (Œ as in Œuvre), because they can change the meaning and the pronunciation.