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Socrates
Asked: 2025-01-20 17:46:56 +0800 CST

Type Spanish letters on German keyboard in Ubuntu?

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My question is quite simple. I want to type the Spanish ñ letter on my German keyboard in Ubuntu 24.04. How can I do that?

Is that possible? I found it really hard actually to find info on that on the Internet. To type the Spanish question mark ¿ I just use Strg + Alt Gr + ?. I would have assumed that there is such a combination of keys to type the Spanish ñ letter or at lest something like Alt Gr + + → n for it.

I mean, there is the possibility to use the compose way and type a UTF-8 character. Strg + Shift + u → 00F1 → Enter and then the result would be to have typed the letter ñ, but this way is a bit cumbersome.

keyboard

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    On most language keyboards ñ can be obtained using the Compose Key,n,~ or Compose Key,~,n sequence. And for its capital equivalent Ñ it is Compose Key,Shift+N,~ or Compose Key,~,Shift+N.

    • Obviously, the n character is obtained by directly pressing the N key on your German keyboard.
    • But, for the ~ character (on your German keyboard), you should press the key combination AltGr+~.

    The whole list of "Compose Key" combinations are listed in the file /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose and you can customize it for your current user by putting similar definitions in your ~/.XCompose file.

    In my case, the "Compose Key" (sometimes called "menu key" or "multi key") is shown as ≡ on my keyboards and it is between the right AltGr and right Ctrl. However, it may not have been set in your case or set differently. To check the actual "Compose Key" go to Gnome Settings → Keyboard → Special Character Entry → Compose Key and select the Menu key as the "Compose Key" or if your keyboard does not have a "menu key" select any other appropriate key.

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