Short answer: No keyboard has IPA symbols on it. Copy them from the keys below, or type them by code point — schwa is 0259 then Alt + X in Word, or Option + 0259 on a Mac with Unicode Hex Input on. If you transcribe regularly, install the free SIL IPA keyboard and stop hunting altogether.
Tap to copy
Working the other way round — you have a symbol and don’t know what it is? Paste it into the Symbol Identifier and it’ll name the character and give you every way to type it.
IPA symbols aren’t one block of Unicode
This is why they’re awkward to find, and why a single chart lookup so often fails. The alphabet is assembled from four places:
- IPA Extensions (U+0250–U+02AF) — the purpose-built letters: ə ɪ ʊ ɛ ʌ ɔ ɑ ʃ ʒ ɡ ɹ ɾ ʔ.
- Spacing Modifier Letters (U+02B0–U+02FF) — stress, length and the superscript modifiers: ˈ ˌ ː ʰ ʲ ʷ.
- Combining Diacritical Marks (U+0300–U+036F) — nasalisation, syllabicity, devoicing. These attach to the letter before them.
- Ordinary letters borrowed from elsewhere — æ ð ç ø come straight out of Latin-1, and θ β χ are the Greek letters, not IPA-specific characters. Searching an IPA chart for theta gets you nowhere; it lives in the Greek alphabet at U+03B8.
If you’ve ever wondered why a character “isn’t in the IPA table,” that’s usually the answer. Background on how the blocks fit together is in what Unicode is.
Quick reference — the English set
| Symbol | Unicode name | Code point | Word (Alt + X) | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ə | Latin small letter schwa | U+0259 | 0259 + Alt + X | ə |
| ɪ | Latin letter small capital I | U+026A | 026A + Alt + X | ɪ |
| ʊ | Latin small letter upsilon | U+028A | 028A + Alt + X | ʊ |
| ɛ | Latin small letter open e | U+025B | 025B + Alt + X | ɛ |
| ʌ | Latin small letter turned v | U+028C | 028C + Alt + X | ʌ |
| ɔ | Latin small letter open o | U+0254 | 0254 + Alt + X | ɔ |
| ɑ | Latin small letter alpha | U+0251 | 0251 + Alt + X | ɑ |
| æ | Latin small letter ae | U+00E6 | 00E6 + Alt + X | æ |
| ʃ | Latin small letter esh | U+0283 | 0283 + Alt + X | ʃ |
| ʒ | Latin small letter ezh | U+0292 | 0292 + Alt + X | ʒ |
| θ | Greek small letter theta | U+03B8 | 03B8 + Alt + X | θ |
| ð | Latin small letter eth | U+00F0 | 00F0 + Alt + X | ð |
| ŋ | Latin small letter eng | U+014B | 014B + Alt + X | ŋ |
| ɡ | Latin small letter script g | U+0261 | 0261 + Alt + X | ɡ |
| ɹ | Latin small letter turned r | U+0279 | 0279 + Alt + X | ɹ |
| ʔ | Latin letter glottal stop | U+0294 | 0294 + Alt + X | ʔ |
| ː | Modifier letter triangular colon | U+02D0 | 02D0 + Alt + X | ː |
| ˈ | Modifier letter vertical line | U+02C8 | 02C8 + Alt + X | ˈ |
| ˌ | Modifier letter low vertical line | U+02CC | 02CC + Alt + X | ˌ |
Four of these have old Windows Alt codes because they sit in the Latin-1 range: æ = Alt + 0230, ð = Alt + 0240, ç = Alt + 0231, ø = Alt + 0248. Nothing above U+00FF does — the classic Alt codes stop at 255.
The three lookalikes that break transcripts
This is where transcription goes wrong, and it’s invisible until something fails.
The length mark is not a colon. ː is U+02D0 MODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLON — two small triangles. A plain colon : is U+003A. They look close in most fonts and behave completely differently: the colon is punctuation, so it can trigger line breaks, sort wrongly, and read aloud as “colon.”
The stress marks are not quotation marks. Primary stress ˈ is U+02C8, secondary stress ˌ is U+02CC. They are not apostrophes, not commas, and definitely not the curly quotes your word processor substitutes automatically — see straight vs curly quotes for how that autocorrect works and how to switch it off before it eats your transcription.
Two different g’s are both correct. IPA uses the open-tail ɡ (U+0261, “script g”), and Unicode encodes it separately from the ordinary g (U+0067). Both forms are acceptable in IPA transcription, with the open-tail one traditional. The practical problem isn’t correctness, it’s consistency: mix them in one document and find-and-replace, sorting and text matching all quietly miss half your instances. Pick one and stick to it.
Windows
- In Word: type the hex code —
0259— then press Alt + X. The code becomes the character. Press Alt + X again to reverse it. - Anywhere else: Windows key + R, run
charmap, tick Advanced view, set Group by to Unicode Subrange, choose IPA Extensions, then Select → Copy. - Or tap a key above and paste.
Alt + X is a Word feature, not a Windows shortcut — it won’t convert in a browser field, and Microsoft documents that some Office programs can’t convert Unicode codes at all. And apart from the four Latin-1 letters above, IPA symbols have no Alt codes: the numpad codes only run to 255. Alt codes vs Unicode vs HTML explains the split.
Mac
There’s no Option shortcut for schwa or any of the purpose-built IPA letters, so don’t go looking for one. Two routes that work:
- Unicode Hex Input. System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources → Edit → + → Others → Unicode Hex Input. Switch to it in the menu bar, hold Option and type 0259. Every IPA character is in the Basic Multilingual Plane, so this covers all of them.
- Character Viewer. Control + Command + Space, search by name — “schwa”, “esh”, “eng” all resolve — or by code point.
The borrowed Latin-1 letters do have real shortcuts on a US layout: Option + ‘ gives æ, Option + O gives ø, Option + C gives ç. More of those in accents on a US keyboard and æ, œ and ø.
Linux
Ctrl + Shift + U, type 0259, then Enter or Space. That’s the sequence GNOME documents and GTK applications accept directly. Elsewhere, use the Characters app and copy. Full detail in typing symbols on Linux.
iPhone and Android
Neither has an IPA keyboard built in, and neither offers code-point entry. Two workable approaches:
- Text replacement, one symbol at a time. iOS: Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement, paste
əas the Phrase and set the Shortcut to something like;əorxschwa. Android (Gboard): Settings → Dictionary → Personal dictionary. This is the right answer if you use six or eight symbols constantly — see text replacement for symbols. - Install a full IPA keyboard. Keyman (below) has iOS and Android apps, and the SIL IPA layout runs on both.
The real answer for regular transcription: an IPA keyboard
If you’re transcribing for coursework, a dictionary project, or teaching, per-character lookup will wear you down. Keyman is a free, open-source keyboarding system from SIL Global that runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and in the browser. The SIL IPA Unicode layout, developed by Martin Hosken, is mnemonic rather than positional: you type a base letter followed by a modifier key such as <, > or = to reach the related IPA character, and diacritics come from their own key sequences.
The trade-off is honest — it’s a layout to learn, and the mnemonic system takes a week to feel natural. For occasional use, copy-paste and text replacement win. For daily use, nothing else comes close.
Combining diacritics
Nasalisation, syllabicity and the rest are combining marks: you type the base letter first, then the mark, and the renderer stacks them. They’re not in the copy keys above, because a combining mark on its own has nothing to attach to.
| Mark | Meaning | Code point | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ◌̃ | Nasalised | U+0303 | ɑ̃ |
| ◌̩ | Syllabic | U+0329 | n̩ |
| ◌̥ | Voiceless | U+0325 | n̥ |
| ◌̪ | Dental | U+032A | t̪ |
In Word, type the base letter, then 0303 and Alt + X. On a Mac, base letter then Option + 0303 with Hex Input. The mark lands on the character immediately before the cursor.
HTML, CSS and fonts
Use numeric references — there are no named entities for IPA characters:
html
<p>schwa: ə · esh: ʃ · length: ː</p>
<p lang="en-fonipa">/ˈskedʒuːl/</p>That lang="en-fonipa" is worth knowing: it’s the BCP 47 subtag for IPA transcription, and it tells browsers and assistive technology that the text is phonetic rather than misspelled prose.
Font coverage is the other half. System fonts handle the common letters but thin out fast on diacritics and rarer symbols, and stacked combining marks are where most fonts fall apart. The free SIL families — Charis SIL, Doulos SIL, Gentium — were built for exactly this and render the full set properly:
css
.ipa{font-family:'Charis SIL','Doulos SIL','Gentium Plus',serif;}If a character comes out as an empty box, that’s a font gap, not a broken character — symbols showing as boxes covers the mechanism.
Accessibility
Screen readers announce these by Unicode name, so ə is read as “latin small letter schwa” and ʃ as “latin small letter esh” — accurate, but unusable as a running transcription. Two things help: mark the text with lang="en-fonipa", and give any transcription that carries real meaning a plain-language gloss nearby. How screen readers pronounce symbols has the fuller pattern.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Symbols show as boxes | Font gap, not a bad character. Install Charis SIL or Doulos SIL and apply it to the transcription. |
| Stress marks turned into curly quotes | Word autocorrect. Turn off smart quotes, or paste the real U+02C8 / U+02CC from above. |
| Find-and-replace misses some words | You’ve mixed ɡ U+0261 with g U+0067. Pick one and replace globally. |
| Diacritic sits in the wrong place | Combining marks go after the base letter. Check the order. |
| Alt + X does nothing | You’re not in Word. Use Character Map or copy from above. |
| Looking for an Alt code | Only æ, ð, ç and ø have one. Everything above U+00FF doesn’t. |
| Character Viewer search finds nothing | Search the Unicode name — “schwa”, “esh”, “ezh”, “eng” — rather than the sound. |
Recap
| If you… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Need one symbol now | Tap it above |
| Write in Word | Hex code then Alt + X |
| Use a Mac | Unicode Hex Input, Option + 0259 |
| Are on a phone | Text replacement shortcuts |
| Transcribe daily | Install Keyman + SIL IPA Unicode |
| Publish IPA on the web | ə, lang="en-fonipa", Charis SIL |
Frequently asked questions
How do I type the schwa symbol ə?
In Word, type 0259 and press Alt + X. On a Mac, enable Unicode Hex Input and press Option + 0259. On a phone, copy it once and save it as a text replacement shortcut. There’s no Alt code for it.
Is the IPA length mark the same as a colon?
No. The length mark is ː, U+02D0 MODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLON. A plain colon is U+003A, ordinary punctuation, and using it can cause wrong line breaks, wrong sorting and wrong screen-reader output.
Why does IPA use the Greek letter theta?
Because the IPA symbol for the voiceless dental fricative is the Greek letter. θ is U+03B8 GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA — there’s no separate IPA-specific version. The same applies to β and χ.
Which g should I use in IPA transcription, ɡ or g?
Both are acceptable in IPA, with the open-tail ɡ (U+0261) traditional. What matters is consistency within a document, because mixing them breaks find-and-replace and text matching.
What’s the best font for IPA symbols?
Charis SIL, Doulos SIL and Gentium are free, purpose-built for phonetic transcription, and handle stacked combining diacritics that most system fonts render badly.
Is there an IPA keyboard I can install?
Yes. Keyman from SIL Global is free and open source, runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, and the SIL IPA Unicode layout gives you the whole alphabet through mnemonic key sequences.
Written by Igor R. Tested on Windows 11, macOS, iOS, Android, ChromeOS, Linux, Word and Google Docs. Last updated September 2026. Symbol code points follow the Unicode Standard.