Change Keyboard Language on Windows

  1. 1

    Settings → Time & Language → Language & Region

    Open Settings (Windows + I). Click Time & Language → Language & Region.

  2. 2

    Add a language and its keyboard

    Click Add a language. Search for the language whose keyboard you want (e.g. French, Spanish, Japanese). During installation, ensure the keyboard is included. Or: click the three dots next to an existing language → Language Options → Add a keyboard.

  3. 3

    Switch keyboards with Windows + Space

    Press Windows + Space to cycle through installed keyboards. The current input language appears in the taskbar near the clock. Click it to select a specific keyboard directly.

Change Keyboard Language on Mac

System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources → Edit. Click + to add a keyboard layout. Select the language and layout from the list. Click Add. To switch: press Ctrl+Space (or Cmd+Space depending on settings), or click the flag/input icon in the menu bar. Enable “Show Input menu in menu bar” for easy access.

Change Keyboard Language on iPhone

Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard. Select the language. To switch while typing: tap and hold the globe icon (bottom left of keyboard) to select a language, or tap it to cycle through languages. The globe icon appears when multiple keyboards are installed.

Change Keyboard Language on Android

Settings → General Management → Language and Input → On-screen Keyboard → Gboard (or your keyboard app) → Languages → Add Keyboard. Select the language. Switch while typing by tapping the language key (globe or language abbreviation on the spacebar).

Keyboard layout vs display languageAdding a keyboard layout changes which characters appear when you press each key — it does not change the language of your menus and interface. To change the Windows interface language, see our guide to changing the Windows display language. On Mac, changing input source also does not change the system language.

Frequently Asked Questions

You have accidentally switched to a different keyboard layout. Check the taskbar (Windows) or menu bar (Mac) for the current input language indicator. Press Windows + Space (Windows) or Ctrl+Space (Mac) to switch back to your usual layout. This commonly happens when keyboard shortcuts accidentally trigger a layout switch. If it keeps happening, check if a keyboard shortcut is set for language switching and change or disable it in language settings.
Mac: press and hold any letter key (e.g. hold E) to show a popup of accented versions. Click or type the number of the accent you want. Or use Option key shortcuts: Option+E then E = é. Windows: use the US International keyboard layout which allows accent entry with key combinations. Or use Windows emoji picker (Windows+.) which includes special characters. On both platforms, you can also copy and paste accented characters from Character Map (Windows) or Character Viewer (Mac).