How to type foreign words with accents

 

I have trouble with words such as cafe and manana. Without the accent, they look wrong. 

Accent can mean intonation, or diacritical mark. The most common ones are :

The Acute Accent

más

 México

the circumflex, and 

the tilde.

The Tilde

 Ñ

mañana

Real Academia Española 

Simple System For Copying Correct Accents

My usual method is to find the word in google or  an online dictionary or Wikipedia and copy the whole word  or the accented letter. After you have copied it the first time, you can past it several times in the same article or post. Either continue using the control +v, or, if you have afterwards copied other letters, words, or pictures, search for the word with the accent in the article you are writing and copy it from your own article.

 tú

If you change to other words you are copying, then copy the letter with symbol again, this time from the first time you used it correctly in your own text.

As for remembering pronunciation, in French I think of the word for schoolchild, eleve, with the accents going up, acute, then down, grave.

élève

French words with accents

à la carte

château

If you copy a word in bold, and you are in blogger, just go to the character for inserting bold, the big capital letter B, and you will undo the bold of the word you have copied. If it comes out too large, look for the double TT sign which alters text size. if it comes out italic like this, click on the capital I sign which will be leaning forwards.. 

German accents

unlaut

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:German_alphabet

Ä	ä	Ä	IPA(key): [ʔɛː]	Audio: Duration: 2 seconds.0:02
Ö	ö	Ö	IPA(key): [ʔøː]	Audio: Duration: 2 seconds.0:02
Ü	ü	Ü	IPA(key): [ʔyː]	Audio: Duration: 2 seconds.0:02
ẞ	ß	Eszett

Norwegian Bokmål 

Spanish words with accents

letter ⟨ñ⟩ in Spanish

Español

Real Academia Española 

mañana

Spanish uses only the acute accent over any vowel: ⟨á é í ó ú⟩. 

Useful Instructions on using foreign letters / accents

https://acuteaccents.com/how-to-type-accents-in-microsoft-word-6-methods/

For details on Spanish pronunciation, see Spanish phonology and Help:IPA/Spanish.

Useful lists of words

French

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_French_words_and_expressions_in_English

German

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:German_alphabet

Search systems

https://www.etymonline.com/word/a%20la%20carte

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Beziers Airport, Excellent Lemon Cake, Europcar, Learn Esential Car Locking!

 Good little souvenir shop and adjacent cafe which served a nice lemon pound cake,which we later found was a thing of the region of France.

Europcar Collection

The car collections kiosks are all around are forecourt so easy to find. 

However, our Europcar rep wanted to go home on Sunday afternoon. Phoned us while we were having our coffee at the airport to ask where we were and please hurry up. He left us to photograph the car and find out how weverything worked on a hybrid. The whole week we were puzzled, although we had a handy manual. 

Essential Information - Locking Doors From Inside

A pity they didn't give us vital information, such as how to lock the car doors from the inside. Later that week, at a traffic light, an odd looking man ran up and opened the car door. He repeated two words, several times. I speak French. At first I thought he was asking for money in a foreign language, which I do not speak, non European, such as Arabic. 

Then I wondered if he wanted a lift to another town, which was not a place we knew or attended to visit. 

I said, 'No! No understand!' i shook my head, frowning.

I pulled the door shut - and my assailant pushed the door shut, annoyed. As the lights changed, the car behind hooted, and my husband accelerated off.

We stopped at the next convenient pull-in. We looked up in the manual how to lock the doors from inside. A small flat square shape in the elbow height door handle could be depressed to lock the door. Lift it to release the door lock.

Leaving Beziers, taking off in the Ryanair plane, a week later, I was in an empty row. So I moved to the window seat and I took a picture. Low rise airport, two storeys high.

Ryanair plane from window seat, taking off from Beziers airport. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

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Albanian Language - reminder and update on easy words such as hotel and restaurant

 

Easy words

Romanian - English
b a n k ë - bank (Typing the e with double dots above is easy. Just press on the letter e and hold it down. Up pop a choice of letters e. Number four is the one with two dots above. Keep your finger on the pressed e and tap 4.)
f a r m a c i - pharmacy (in the UK called a chemist)
hi - hi
hotel - hotel
h o t e l e - hotels
kafe - café

peshk - fish
plaza - plaza
r e s t o r a n t - restaurant
s a n d u i ç - sandwich
s t a c i o n - station

English - Romanian
bank - b a n k ë
café - k a f e

fish - peshk (from the Latin, like the English zodiac sign pisces, f and p being often linked in various languages)
hi - hi
hotel - hotel
hotels - h o t e l e
plaza - plaza
pharmacy (in the UK called a chemist) - f a r m a c i
restaurant - r e s t o r a n t
sandwich - s a n d u i ç (hold down the letter c and tap the number one)
station - s t a c i o n

Now you know how to recognize ten easy and useful words in Albanian.

• Albanian words of Latin origin include 
• Latin amīcus → Albanian mik 'friend', inimīcus → armik 'foe, enemy' 
• benedīcere → bekoj, 
•  castellum → kështjellë 'castle', 
• centum → qind 'hundred', 
•  medicus → mjek 'doctor', 
•  spērāre → dial. shp(ë)rej, shpresoj 'to hope', pres 'to await', 
• voluntās (voluntātis) → vullnet 'will; volunteer'.
• 
  
• Some Albanian church terminology has phonetic features which demonstrate their very early borrowing from Latin. A few examples include Albanian bekoj 'to bless' from benedīcere, 
• engjëll 'angel' from angelus, 
• kishë 'church' from ecclēsia, i 
• krishterë 'Christian' from christiānus, 
• kryq 'cross' from crux (crucis)

Using google translate

darkë - dinner (think of a meal after dark)
drekë - lunch
mëngjes - breakfast
çaj -tea
mali - mountain
bukë - bread
Mish - meat
pulë - chicken (like french poule)
peshku - fish
vegjetarian - vegetarian
perimesh - vegetable
bizele/bizele -
makinë - car
karrota - carrot
birrë - beer
verë - wine
e kuqe
të bardhë - white
verë e kuqe - red wine
verë e Bardhë - white wine 
verë me gaz - sparkling wine
alkoolit - alcohol
pa alkool/ - no alcohol
pa alkool - without alcohol
tabela - table
karrige - chair
dhoma g ainjumi double bedroom
krevat dopio - double bed
sapun - soap
tualet - toilet
makinë - car
autobus - bus
treni - train
aeroplan - plane
sot - today
nesër - tomorrow
mbyllur - closed
e mirë (e admirueshme) - good (admirable)
keq - bad

e tmerrshme - terrible

sheqer - sugar
rosto - roast
marmelatë - marmalade
rrushi - grape
fruta kivi - kiwi fruit
piper - pepper
muzikë - music
opera - opera

tortë - cake
biskotë - biscuit
cokollate - chocolate
luleshtrydhe - strawberry 
mjedër - raspberry
boronica - blueberry
domate - tomato

me - with
dhe - and
ose - or
të - the

 Unë/unë/e imja - I/me/mine
ju - you
ai - he
ajo - she
atë - it
ne - we
ata/ - they
ato - them
valixhe - suitcase (like valise)
kosto - cost
i madh - big
i vogël - small
kapelë - hat
veshjet - dress
fund - skirt
bluzë - blouse
këmishë - shirt
kravatë - tie
kapak - cap
shall - scarf
stoli - jewellery
argjendi - silver
ari - gold
lëkurë - leather

Story
I met an Albanian at Toastmasters. Smiling and good looking. Always smiling. I like Albanians.

He was a builder. Then I met another man. He was a plumber.

He asked me, "What do you do?"

I said, "I am an author, and I teach English, and I'm learning other languages."

I asked the plumber, What's your language?"

He said,"It's Albanian."

Hm. For once I was lost for words.

Problem
I don't speak one word of Albanian. He was ahead of me, speaking both Albanian and English, some French, a bit of Greek. He spoke my language fluently. But I was a teacher and could not speak one word of his language.

Answer
I could learn one word from him. I could get a free lesson.

Keep it simple. I asked, "Is it easy to read Albanian, if you speak English? Are the letters the same?"

Tips
"The Albanian alphabet? Yes, the letters are the same. But Albanian has more of them."

That sounds very Alice in Wonderland. I asked, "Please explain."

"The Albanian language has 36 letters, mostly the same as in English, but double letters are counted."

Ch sounds like Russian, looks like Russian, has a cedilla and pronounced ch as in the English word Chance.

SH as in should counts as one letter.

xh - pronounced J as in Jack.
For example:
uncle in English is written in Albanian as - xhaxhi - pronounced judge ee

th - a new letter. "A little th as in thing think, fifth."

dh - "a strong th as in the or this, themselves, leather".

What about sentence structure?

"I am reading a book:
un - i
yam
duke
ledur," says my Albanian friend.

I could not grasp that the first time, let alone remember it. Let's make life easy. I asked, "Which words are the same in both languages?"

"Many Words Are The same:
hotel
taxi
train."

Now, let's try some everyday words such as hello and goodbye, and yes and no, and please and thank you.

thank  you - f a l i  m i n d e r e t (sounds longer in Albanian). Sound like Ali but it start f a l i (memory aid for thank you, thank you, Ali, I can't fail FALI; mind / minder / et / tete.
hello
goodbye - l a m t u m i r ë

What does the double dot on the ë mean?
If you click on the sound symbol underneath the word at the bottom of the text box in Google translate you can hear that the ë sound like er, a short version of err.

To type the e with the double dot above, press down the e key on your laptop keyboard; up pops a list of possible accents - see that the one you want is number 4; continue to hold down the e key and with your other hand, your right hand, tap the number four key at the top of the keyboard. Release both fingers and you should see the e with the two dots. If you get an ordinary e, or double ee, you have mistimed it by holding or release one finger. Just try again.

How are you? Ok.
c u ok
mir - ok
t mir - you ok

"You ask about the whole family, your father ok, your mother ok and so on. So you hear, '... mir ... mir ...  mir?' "

They also use OK because they learn English as a second language in school, so no problem speaking to Albanians. They have similar words such as:
stress - stress

What about yes and no?
Yes - po (I think of very possible - yes)
no - yo , (I think of ay-yi-yi, absolutely not, you have to be kidding me)

How confusing. Both end with o, and the no starts with a ye like the English yes.

Remember, yes, it is possible. Yes is po.

No, no, yo, yo. Can I operate a yo-yo, no, no!

rr (rolled r)
r r u g is road or street

table - same as English and French

Useful Websites

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Albanian_phrasebook#:~:text=Albanian

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_language

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Free Museum In London, The Horniman - in a free hilltop park with view over London and animals

Problem
Where to go in London which won't cost a fortune? A wonderful all-weather activity, indoor and out.

Answer
The Horniman Museum. The Museum is free.

The gardens are free. Masses for children to do in the museum and outside in the grounds.

Indoors - free
1 The global world collection of oddities that Horniman collected on his travels around Asia, India and Africa. Supplemented by updated information from the coutnries concerned.

Go to the upstairs gallery and look down.

2 A huge collection of stuffed animals and birds - a bit like the Natural History museum collection out at Tring collected by the Rothschilds.

3 A vast number of musical instruments. Click on buttons to hear them play.

Indoor gift shop will keep you amused for some time whether or not you buy. Lots of things which make a noise, such as soft toy birds from the RSPB, which sing.

Musical instruments based on those from around the world, such as maracas.

Items to paint with washable pens supplied, and then wash. Choose from a backpag, pencil case, pillow case, duvet, four placemats.

The design is the world which kids can colour in. Hours of fun - providing you can make it clear they decorate this item and nothing else - but if they did at least the paint in the pens supplied is washable.

The indoor cafe has assorted foods and drinks and seating.

Outdoors - free
Park And Views
The hilltop park with flower areas has views over London and its skyline. I immediately spotted and identified the pointed Shard from a distance. The display aboard points out Wembley Stadium and arch to the left, The Gherkin and several more buildings to the right.

A statue of a goat drew my attention to the entrance to the animal area with goats and rabbits. I went there first which proved a good idea because it closed early. The guinea pigs were hiding when I was there.

Outdoor ice cream kiosk attracts those walking through the park and not going into the museum.

Practical Visitor Details
Nearby station
Forest Hill (has a fish and chip shop opposite and pubs which have to provide drinking water for free because they serve alcohol.

Horniman Museum and Gardens
100 London Road
London SE23 3PQ
Tel: 020 8699 1872
horniman.ac.uk

Photos will be added later.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker.