charset utf-8 does not display é, á, , í , or ú
<p>I have a database that stores some unusual characters input by visitors: e.g. é, á, , í , and ú.</p>

<p>My html 5 web page displays ? instead of the character when I use </p>

<pre><code>&lt;meta charset="utf-8"&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>but when I use </p>

<pre><code>&lt;meta charset="ISO-8859-1"&gt;
</code></pre>

<p>the characters are displayed correctly.</p>

<p>However, when I specify the latter charset the W3C validator spits out an error message:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Error: Bad value ISO-8859-1 for attribute charset on element meta:
  iso-8859-1</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Is there a way to get the characters displaying correctly and get a W3C validation, or am I expecting too much?</p>

<p>Regards</p>

<p>Tog</p>

<p>The suggested "already answered" question does not apply because: 1) My php version is 5.4, not 5.5 (2) I do not understand the answer which seems to be aimed at people who have a greater depth of knowledge than me.</p>