You can type accent marks on the Mac, as in résumé and piñata. It's easy to remember that you use the Option key, and the accents are hiding beneath the keyboard characters that would usually be under them. For example, the acute accent over the é is Option e; the tilde over the ñ is Option n.
Here is a list of common accent marks:
´ | Option e |
` | Option ~ |
¨ | Option u |
~ | Option n |
^ | Option i |