Hawaiian Keyboard on Mac

← All devices: the Hawaiian keyboard

Every Mac includes a Hawaiian keyboard. It works like a normal U.S. keyboard with two differences: the apostrophe key types the ʻokina, and the Option key adds the kahakō. You turn it on once, and then switch to it whenever you type in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi.

Quick reference

To typePress
ʻ (ʻokina)' (the apostrophe key, next to Return)
ā ē ī ō ūhold Option and press the vowel
Ā Ē Ī Ō Ūhold Option and Shift and press the vowel
a plain apostrophe ( ‘ )Option + '

Step 1: Add the Hawaiian keyboard (once)

macOS Ventura (13) and newer, including Sonoma, Sequoia and Tahoe:

  1. Open the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
  2. Click Keyboard in the sidebar.
  3. Under Text Input, find Input Sources and click Edit…
  4. Click the + button at the bottom left.
  5. Type Hawaiian in the search field, click Hawaiian, then click Add.
  6. Still in this window, turn on Show Input menu in menu bar. Then click Done.

Can’t find Hawaiian in the list? The list is long and sorted by language, so use the search field at the top rather than scrolling.

macOS Monterey (12) and older: Apple menu › System Preferences › Keyboard › Input Sources tab › + › Hawaiian › Add. Tick Show Input menu in menu bar.

Step 2: Switch to Hawaiian when you type

Your Mac remembers every keyboard you have added, and you choose which one is active. Any of these works:

  • Click the input menu near the clock at the top of the screen and choose Hawaiian.
  • Press Control + Space to switch between your keyboards.
  • On newer Mac keyboards, press the 🌐 Globe key (also labelled fn). If it opens the emoji picker instead, go to System Settings › Keyboard and set Press 🌐 key to to Change Input Source.

Tip: The Hawaiian keyboard types English perfectly well. Many of our students leave it on all the time and only press Option + ' when they need an apostrophe in English, as in “don’t”.

Step 3: Test it

Once your keyboard is switched on, type the line in the box below. Each Hawaiian letter lights up green when your device produces the real character. If something is wrong, the box tells you exactly what you typed and how to fix it. What you type never leaves your device.

Hoʻāʻo: test your Hawaiian keyboard

Type this line exactly as you see it. Each letter below lights up when your device types it correctly.

ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi: ʻāina, ʻēheu, ʻīlio, ʻōpae, ʻūlili

  • ʻʻokina
  • ā
  • ē
  • ī
  • ō
  • ū
  • Ōcapital

    Show the character codes I typed

      What you type stays on your device. To improve these guides, the site keeps an anonymous count of how the test goes on each kind of device: no names, no cookies, no IP addresses.

      This test needs JavaScript turned on in your browser.

      Fixing common problems

      • The apostrophe key types ' instead of ʻ. The English keyboard is active. Switch to Hawaiian (Step 2).
      • Option + a types å, or Option + e does nothing until the next letter. Same cause: those are the U.S. keyboard’s Option characters. Switch to Hawaiian.
      • The ʻokina or kahakō shows as an empty box. The font you are using doesn’t include those letters. Choose a common font such as Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, Times New Roman or Noto Sans.
      • Words keep changing after I type them. Auto-correct is “fixing” Hawaiian words into English ones. Turn off Correct spelling automatically in System Settings › Keyboard › Text Input (Edit…), or turn it off in the app you are using.
      • I want to see where the keys are. In the input menu, choose Show Keyboard Viewer, then hold Option to see the kahakō vowels light up.

      Other devices

      Scroll to Top