العربية · Beginner 1(a)
Learn to type in Arabic
Home row anchors
Settle both hands on the home row: A S D F for the left, J K L ; for the right.
Physical key labels appear above. العربية layout labels appear below. These three rows produce 24 of the 31 characters the practice words here use; the rest are reached with a modifier or a dead key.
Learning to type in Arabic
Arabic is written in its own script, whose marks combine with base letters into single written units — so one keystroke is not one character on screen. It also runs right to left.
One written unit in Arabic is often two or three keystrokes, and the 64 practice words here average 3.5 written units each — so a word of ordinary length is a good deal more work than its length suggests. That is the figure to hold on to when your Arabic speed looks low beside your English: the score counts what appears on screen, and your hands pay for what it took to put it there.
The distribution is lopsided, which is the useful part. Across the 64 practice words, 31 distinct characters appear — and the single most common accounts for about 16% of every letter typed, with the top ten covering roughly 70%. Drilling the frequent ones first is where almost all of the benefit is.
The speed test and the games draw on one bank of 64 common Arabic words — 31 distinct characters in all, averaging 3.5 written units per word. The beginner course works outward from the home row in nine stages, and a drill is finished only when it has been typed cleanly three times — the default, adjustable in Settings. That repetition is the point: speed is a by-product of not making mistakes, and chasing it directly produces fast typists who then have to go back and fix everything.
Watch what you have written rather than what you are pressing. In Arabic a cluster only resolves once the last mark is in, so the screen is the only honest feedback on whether the keystroke order was right. Typists who learn to read their own output catch a mistake on the next character rather than at the end of the line.
- Writing system
- Arabic
- Keyboard layout
- Arabic 101
- Direction
- right to left
- Mapped characters
- 31
- Practice words
- 64
- Distinct characters
- 31
- Average word
- 3.5 units
Characters that come up most in these Arabic words
- ا37
- ل34
- م18
- ن16
- ي12
- ب9
- ع8
- ك8
- ه8
- أ7
- ر7
- ق7
Counted across the 64 practice words — the ones worth recognising first.
اليد الهادئة تجد صف الارتكاز بسهولة وثقةLetters that change shape as you type them
Arabic letters take different forms depending on where they sit in a word — isolated, initial, medial or final — and most connect to the letter after them. This is handled entirely by the font and the text renderer: you press one key per letter and the shapes resolve themselves as the word builds.
It does mean the character you just typed can visibly change when you type the next one, which is disconcerting at first and is the main reason Arabic typists learn to watch the screen rather than the keys.
Short vowels are normally not written. The diacritics that mark them — harakat — exist and are used in the Qur'an, in poetry and in material for learners, but ordinary Arabic text omits them and readers supply them from context. Typing them requires a modifier and is rarely needed.
The Arabic 101 layout is the common standard. Arabic 102 adds keys for a few characters used in other Arabic-script languages.
Questions about typing in Arabic
Where should I start with Arabic?
At the beginning of the beginner course, even if you already touch type in another language. The nine stages start on the home row and add keys outward, and the early ones are short. If Arabic is a script you have never typed, the first stage is doing more work than it looks like — it is building the map, not the speed.
How long does learning to touch type in Arabic take?
Longer than a week and shorter than you fear — and it depends far more on how often you practise than on how long each session runs. Short daily sessions beat long weekly ones by a wide margin, because what you are building is recall and recall decays between sessions. The streak counter exists for that reason.
Can I skip ahead to a later stage?
Yes, nothing is locked. It is usually a mistake, though, because each stage assumes the keys before it have stopped needing thought — and a stage practised on top of a shaky one tends to embed the shakiness rather than fix it.
Do I need an Arabic keyboard?
No. An Arabic keyboard is a software setting: add the Arabic 101 layout in your operating system's keyboard settings and your existing keys begin producing Arabic characters, with the marks composing as you type them in order.
Which Arabic keyboard layout do these lessons use?
Arabic 101, with 31 characters mapped across the standard key positions. Arabic runs right to left, which both the practice text and the cursor respect. The 64 practice words between them use 31 distinct characters. The keyboard guide below the typing area shows the physical key and the character it produces together, so you are never reading a layout diagram in one window while typing in another.
What will I actually be typing in Arabic?
Sequences of the keys each stage has introduced — single letters first, then pairs, then short chunks — in Arabic as the Arabic 101 layout produces it, rather than transliterated into Latin letters. The point of the course is the position of a key rather than the vocabulary. The 64 common Arabic words in the practice bank are what the speed test samples and what the games pull from, once the positions stop needing thought.
Is Arabic hard to type?
Harder than a one-key-one-letter language, and for a specific reason rather than a vague one: marks combine, so a written unit takes several presses in a fixed order. The bank here averages 3.5 units per word with a fairly compact inventory of 31 characters across the practice bank. The keystroke count is higher than the visible length suggests, which is what makes early progress feel slower than it is.
Do I need an account, and is it free?
No, and it is free either way. Every lesson, drill, test and game works signed out, with your progress kept in this browser. An account adds three things only: your progress and settings follow you to another device, your streak survives clearing your browser data, and you can appear on the leaderboards under a name you choose.
Also in Arabic: the speed test and typing games.
Other languages written in Arabic: Kurdish (Sorani), Pashto, Persian (Farsi), Urdu.
Other languages whose letters combine as you type: Assamese, Bengali. Or browse all 86 by writing system.
Further reading
- Typing the Arabic script: one alphabet, five keyboardsOne script, five layouts. What Persian, Urdu, Pashto and Kurdish each change, why a letter changes shape after you type it, and which of it transfers.
- Typing in a second scriptIf you already touch type, your hands transfer completely and your recall does not. What that gap feels like, why it closes, and how to shorten it.
- What touch typing isTouch typing means typing without looking, using all ten fingers from a fixed home position. What it is, why it works, and what it is not.