U+00AB · Latin-1 Supplement

Left Guillemet «

The left guillemet is the opening quotation mark in French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and many other languages, paired with the right guillemet ». In French it is typically followed by a space; in German the direction is often reversed. In English-language web design it also serves as a 'back' or 'previous' arrow in breadcrumbs and pagination.

WindowsAlt 174 / 0171

MacOption + \

UnicodeU+00AB

HTML«

«U+00AB

Character codes

Unicode code point	`U+00AB`
Decimal	`171`
HTML named entity	`«`
HTML (hex)	`«`
HTML (decimal)	`«`
CSS	`\00AB`
JavaScript	`\u00AB`
Python	`\u00AB`
UTF-8 bytes	`C2 AB`
UTF-16	`00AB`
URL-encoded	`%C2%AB`

Character details

Official name	LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
Unicode block	Latin-1 Supplement
General category	Initial Quote (Pi)
SymbolHero category	Punctuation
Emoji	No

How to type «

Windows

Hold Alt and type 174 on the numeric keypad (Num Lock on), then release Alt. Alt 174 uses the code page 437.
Hold Alt and type 0171 on the numeric keypad (Num Lock on), then release Alt. Alt 0171 uses the Windows-1252 code page.
In Microsoft Word or Outlook: type 00AB then press Alt + X.
Open Character Map (search “Character Map” in Start), tick “Advanced view”, search for “left-pointing double angle quotation mark”, then Select and Copy.

Mac

Press Option + \ (US English keyboard layout).
Press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search “left-pointing double angle quotation mark”, and double-click the result.
With the Unicode Hex Input keyboard enabled (System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources), hold Option and type 00AB.

iPhone & Android

Tap Copy at the top of this page, then long-press where you want it and choose Paste.

Docs & web

Google Docs: Insert → Special characters, then search “left-pointing double angle quotation mark” or enter U+00AB.
HTML: « or «
Excel / Google Sheets: =UNICHAR(171)

Examples

« Bonjour », dit-elle.
«Hola», respondió.
« Previous page
Home « Blog « Post

Good to know

Don’t mix it up: Often confused with the much-less-than sign ≪ (U+226A) or two typed less-than signs <<, which are not quotation marks.

Tip: In French text, a no-break space inside the guillemets keeps them from wrapping onto a separate line from the quoted word.

Display: the character itself is always the same code point, but its shape comes from the font on the device showing it. If you see an empty box, the font lacks this glyph—the text is still correct.