How do you get the u with the two dots?

Question

verguence (embarrassed) - in my flash cards, I get one wrong all the time because of not being about to put the dots on the "u". (I get the others wrong because, well, you know...)

How many times does that double-dot thing come up in Spanish? Why, where and how?

Also, is it really best to do flashcards without punctuation, as I have noticed that there is no upside-down question mark to pick either?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Go to google and search "printable ALT key symbols for reference". It will give you all the accents, letters, etc. that you need in any language.

For example, the diéresis over the u = press the Alt key and hold it down. On the numbers on the right of the keyboard press 129, and when you finish that, let go of the Alt key and there you have typed ü.

The upside down question mark is Alt 168. Alt 172 is ¼ and Alt 171 is ½..

I also have an list of all the punctuation marks I got years ago which is compatible with all IBM computers. (That tells you how old it is, haven't seen an IBM computer in ages but the first one I ever bought was an IBM)

Answer 2

The dieresis or umlaut goes over the u; not the g... vergüenza

Alt 0252=ü ALT 168=¿ if your keyboard is not set up to a virtual keyboard capable of making the Spanish characters.

Sorry for not researching. But I see I am not alone. And yes, wrong letter...oops! - sylvialouise, Jun 12, 2011

Answer 3

The reason for the umlaut, by the way, is that if it didn't have one you would pronounce "verguenza" like "ver-gen-tha" instead of "ver-gwen-tha".

Gi and ge are pronounced like "ji" and "je"

Gui and gue are pronounced like "gi" and "ge"

so the umlaut is to show you that the u here is pronounced. And yes it's pretty rare. The only other example I can think of off the top of my head is "nicaragüense".

ALSO, if you´re using a Spanish IME, you know how you hit "apostrophe, e" for é, well if you hit "SHIFT+apostrophe, e" you'll get ë. But it depends which IME you´re using, I use Spanish (International Sort).

Lazarus posted a list of words that use it once and it was not a short list. - 0074b507, Jun 12, 2011

Answer 4

I bought mine on eBay.

Answer 5

I have a Macintosh, and these are the instructions:

To type an umlaut over the u, hold down the Option key while pressing the u key then type u again.

Opt + u, then u = ü

Not sure if it's the same on a PC.