Actually, you have access lots of accents, all at once!
Did you know that your Mac can very simply type a number of foreign language accents automatically with a simple keystroke under most applications and fonts?
I’ve know how to type the accents used by the German language for a while as I often use them in German papers for my studies, but on the Apple Knowledge Base I’ve discovered a post noting the key stroke combinations used for six different accent markings -grave, acute, circumflex, tilde, umlaut and cedilla. Check it out here.
The article is a bit dated as it also discusses how to use the “Key Caps” application, which was removed in OS 10.3 and later. The “Key Caps” application functionality has been shifted to the “Character Palette” window, the details of which are here.
Viel Spaß!