French Keyboard Tester

How AZERTY differs from QWERTY

Keyboards sold in France use AZERTY, named after the first six letters on the top row. Coming from an English keyboard, these are the differences that trip people up:

• A and Q swap places, and so do Z and W.
• M moves to the right of L, onto the key that types a semicolon on a US keyboard.
• The number row types symbols first. Without Shift you get & é " ' ( - è _ ç à ) =. Hold Shift to type 1 to 0.
• ù has its own key next to M, with % on Shift.
• ^ and ¨ share a dead key to the right of P, and $ and £ sit next to it.
• The bottom row ends in , ; : !. With Shift these give ? . / and §, so the full stop needs Shift.
• The keyboard is ISO shaped, with a tall Enter key, a * µ key beside it and an extra < > key next to the left Shift. ² is in the top-left corner.

Symbols on Alt Gr

On Windows the right Alt key, Alt Gr, types the third symbol on a key. These are the ones people look for most:

Symbol	Windows shortcut
@	Alt Gr + à (0)
#	Alt Gr + “ (3)
€	Alt Gr + E
{ and }	Alt Gr + ’ (4) and Alt Gr + =
[ and ]	Alt Gr + ( (5) and Alt Gr + )
|	Alt Gr + - (6)
\	Alt Gr + _ (8)
~	Alt Gr + é (2), then Space

Mac keyboards made for France use a different AZERTY variant: @ has its own key in the top-left corner and several symbols move. If you plug a PC keyboard into a Mac, choose the French – PC input source so the keys match what’s printed on them.

Accents and capital letters

^ and ¨ are dead keys. Press ^ and then e for ê, or Shift + ^ (¨) and then i for ï. Press the dead key and then Space to type the mark on its own.

Standard AZERTY has no keys for capital accented letters, œ or French quotation marks, which is why many people write “Etat” instead of “État”. On Windows, hold Alt and type the code on the numeric keypad:

• É: Alt + 0201
• À: Alt + 0192
• Ç: Alt + 0199
• œ: Alt + 0156
• « and »: Alt + 0171 and Alt + 0187

On a Mac, hold down a letter key to pick an accented version from the menu that appears.

In 2019 the French standards body AFNOR published an improved AZERTY (standard NF Z71-300) with keys for all of these characters. Few keyboards are printed with it yet, and Windows doesn’t include it by default, but you can install it from the official norme-azerty.fr site.

Common French keyboard problems

The top row types &é”’ instead of numbers. That is how AZERTY works, not a fault. Hold Shift, or turn on Num Lock and use the numeric keypad.

A and Q, or Z and W, are swapped. Your keyboard is AZERTY but the computer uses an English layout, or the other way round. Press the Windows key + Space and pick French, then remove the layout you don’t need.

^ seems to do nothing. It is a dead key waiting for a vowel. Press Space after it to type a plain ^.

Belgian and Canadian keyboards are different. Belgian AZERTY moves many symbols, and Canadian French keyboards are QWERTY. See the Belgian keyboard and Canadian French keyboard pages.

What to press in the tester

The on-screen keyboard above shows French AZERTY labels in the ISO shape. Keys are matched by their position, so the tester shows whether a key works even when Windows uses the wrong layout. Work along the number row, then press ù, the ^ dead key, $, *, the < key next to the left Shift and the four punctuation keys at the bottom right.