How do I put a hat on 'e' (ê)?

Question

Since I've migrated to linux a few years ago, one issue still remains.

The ê character features a lot in my "moeder taal" (home language).

In Windows making the character was easy, I simply had to type Alt-136 and voila!

Is there a simplistic way in linux/unix to access special characters?

I'd like to be able to type an ê anywhere on my (or any other) system, not only in the DE, but on the command-line as well.

off-topic: "moeder taal" is now my phrase of the week, thanks. — msw, Sep 20 '10 at 17:02
It's called a circumflex: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumflex ! :) — Zolomon, Sep 21 '10 at 16:34
@Zolomon read the first paragraph from your link, pay special attention to the last word in that paragraph — Stefan, Sep 22 '10 at 09:40

score 17 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 20 '10 at 21:52

17

Press Ctrl+Shift+U and an underlined U will appear. Next to it type in EA, which equals ê.

Found the info here

edited Sep 20 '10 at 21:52

Michael Mrozek

93,103
40
240
233

answered Sep 20 '10 at 16:26

Steve Burdine

6,289

3

great, I never knew this – phunehehe Sep 20 '10 at 16:44
Please note, this only works on Gnome. For a more generic solution, look at the answer involving Compose. – Alexios May 02 '12 at 05:19

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 20 '10 at 19:52

7

In the terminal you can type Compose e ^. On a Windows keyboard Compose is the Menu key to the right of the right-side Windows key.

Wikipedia entry: Compose key

answered Sep 20 '10 at 19:52

Dennis Williamson

6,680

2

Whether or not the Compose Key is that key or something else depends on your settings, and is very distro-, locale- and config-specific. – frabjous Sep 20 '10 at 19:59
Isn't it Compose + ^ and then e to get this ê character? – maxschlepzig Sep 20 '10 at 20:08
not the best of sollutions, as the compose button seems to be a very rare occurence on keyboards.. :) – Stefan Sep 20 '10 at 22:12
When trying to find which physical key produces a keysym (assuming you run X), xev is your friend. For the "Compose" key, look for "Multi_key". – bhm Sep 20 '10 at 23:42
1

If you run GNOME, look at "System -> Preferences -> Keyboard", in the Layouts tab under the Options... button (phew...). There is a section in that dialog for setting the Compose key position. – camh Sep 21 '10 at 06:40
@maxschlepzig: In many cases you can press the keys in either order. – Dennis Williamson Sep 21 '10 at 16:07

laurent · Answer 3 · 2010-09-21T16:21:45.173

1

May be I'm not understanding something but why don't you simply install the US_intl keyboard layout and you'll have all accents available to all letters (possible) (and on windows too) and you make ê pressing ^ and e. ^ is on shift-6 on us keyboards, no idea on moeder taal keyboard!

edited Sep 21 '10 at 16:21

answered Sep 21 '10 at 14:55

laurent

655
4
7

If you're not using wayland, you can use this to activate the us_intl layout: setxkbmap us intl, and it'll set your keyboard layout for the duration of your X session – user986730 Nov 14 '19 at 15:45

How do I put a hat on 'e' (ê)?

3 Answers3

Linked