Y With an Accent
Y has two accented forms in real use: ý (acute) and ÿ (umlaut/diaeresis). Both are genuine Unicode characters, so once you have the right one it copies and pastes exactly like plain text.
- ý acute — Czech and Slovak
- ÿ umlaut/diaeresis — French (rare, mostly proper nouns)
Which Accent Does Y Use, and in What Language?
Czech and Slovak use ý to mark a long vowel sound, the same way á and í mark length on other vowels in those languages. Plain y is short; ý is held longer — starý (old) and mladý (young) both rely on that long ý in their standard masculine adjective ending, and shortening it to y would be a real spelling error, not a stylistic choice.
French ÿ is much rarer and shows up almost exclusively in proper nouns. Its two dots trace back to medieval scribal practice: y was sometimes written to stand in for a doubled i (ii), and scribes marked that doubling with two dots on top — a habit that mostly died out but survived in a handful of place names.
Where Y-Accent Confusion Happens
The clearest surviving example is the French commune L’Haÿ-les-Roses, just south of Paris — the ÿ isn’t decorative, it’s a fossil of that old double-i spelling convention, and dropping it (“L’Hay-les-Roses”) is technically a misspelling of the town’s actual name. The nearby Champagne commune Aÿ carries the same mark for the same historical reason.
In Czech, the more common trap isn’t dropping ý by accident so much as not realizing it changes grammar: ý and í mark different grammatical genders on adjective endings (starý for masculine “old,” stará for feminine), so swapping accents — not just omitting them — actually changes the word’s agreement, not merely its pronunciation.
How to Type Ý or Ÿ
- On Windows — hold Alt and type 0253 for ý, 0221 for Ý, 0255 for ÿ, 0159 for Ÿ.
- On Mac — Option+E then Y gives ý, Option+U then Y gives ÿ. Add Shift for the capital.
- Fastest option — open the Accent Letters Generator, search “y accent,” and click to copy.
Common Words With an Accented Y
starý, mladý, krásný, L’Haÿ-les-Roses, Aÿ.
FAQ
Is ý common outside Czech and Slovak?
No — it’s central to those two languages specifically, marking vowel length, and rarely appears elsewhere.
Why does ÿ have two dots instead of one accent mark?
Historically it represented a doubled i (ii) in medieval French spelling. Most words that once used it have been respelled, but a few place names, like L’Haÿ-les-Roses, kept the original form.
Will ý and ÿ display correctly everywhere?
Yes — both are standard Unicode characters supported on every modern device and browser, no special font required.
Does the Accent Letters Generator include both Y variants, upper and lower case?
Yes — the Accent Letters Generator includes ý, Ý, ÿ and Ÿ, alongside every other commonly accented Latin letter.
More Accented Letters
Browse I With an Accent, U With an Accent, or the full Accent Letters Generator.
