Hausa · Beginner 1(a)
Learn to type in Hausa
Home row anchors
Settle both hands on the home row: A S D F for the left, J K L ; for the right.
These are the keys you press, and in Hausa they produce the letters printed on them. The one character beyond a-z in the practice words here comes from a modifier or a dead key rather than a key of their own, so it is not shown here.
Learning to type in Hausa
Hausa uses the Latin alphabet you already have. The practice words here add 1 character beyond a-z — ƙ.
One number is worth carrying into the first session. About 76% of the letters in these Hausa words come from just ten characters. Get those ten genuinely automatic — not merely findable — and the rest of the layout stops being the thing standing between you and a readable sentence.
The awkward part of Hausa is not the alphabet, it is the 1 character these practice words put outside it: ƙ. Whether your layout gives it a dedicated key or builds it from a modifier, the reach has to become a trained motion rather than a decision — it turns up in 2% of the practice words.
Progress is measured in clean passes, not time spent. Nine stages, a few drills each, three accurate repetitions per drill by default — and the counter does not move for an attempt with errors in it. The speed test and the games draw on one bank of 84 common Hausa words — 23 distinct characters in all, averaging 4.3 written units per word.
Most people arrive at Hausa able to type and unable to type Hausa, which is a narrower problem than it feels. The letter keys are already done. What is left is a small number of positions, and the willingness to reach for them rather than paste them in.
- Writing system
- Latin
- Keyboard layout
- Latin QWERTY family
- Direction
- left to right
- Practice words
- 84
- Distinct characters
- 23
- Average word
- 4.3 units
Characters beyond a-z in the Hausa practice words
- ƙ2
Counted across the 84 practice words. 2% of them need at least one.
The drills do not include ƙ. The beginner course builds each drill by remapping the keys through a language’s layout, and there is no key map for Latin QWERTY family yet — so these stages work through the plain a-z letters. The one character Hausa needs beyond them appears in the speed test and the games, which draw on the word bank, and the keyboard guide above shows where they sit on the layout you have selected. It is one of the two things most worth fixing here; the other is that 2 languages have no layout map at all.
da na a ya ta ba ne ce sosai mai girma ƙaramiHooked letters, and a second script
Hausa in Latin script — Boko — uses four letters with hooks or strokes: ɓ, ɗ, ƙ and ƴ. The first three are implosive consonants, made by drawing air inward, and they contrast with plain b, d and k. They are not decorated versions of those letters; they are separate sounds and separate letters.
This is the main typing obstacle, because the hooked letters are absent from standard keyboards and are frequently replaced with the plain forms online, which loses the distinction.
Hausa is also written in Ajami, an Arabic-based script that predates the Latin orthography and remains in use particularly in religious contexts. These lessons teach Boko, which is the official standard in both Nigeria and Niger.
Questions about typing in Hausa
Do I need a Hausa keyboard?
No. Your operating system already offers a layout that produces ƙ from the keys you have — through a dead key on some, a modifier such as right Alt on others. Which one depends on the language and on the layout you select; the hardware does not change either way.
Which Hausa keyboard layout do these lessons use?
Latin QWERTY family, plus the 1 character beyond a-z that these practice words use. The 84 practice words between them use 23 of those 27, so 4 characters never come up in the practice text — these are the commonest words rather than an even sweep of the layout. The keyboard guide below the typing area shows the keys you actually press, which for an input method are the Latin ones already printed on them.
What will I actually be typing in Hausa?
Sequences of the keys each stage has introduced — single letters first, then pairs, then short chunks — written in the Latin QWERTY family layout. The point of the course is the position of a key rather than the vocabulary. The 84 common Hausa words in the practice bank are what the speed test samples and what the games pull from, once the positions stop needing thought.
How often should I practise Hausa?
Briefly and often. What you are building is recall, and recall decays between sessions, so ten minutes on most days will take you considerably further than an hour once a week. Stop while it is still going well — practising past the point of fatigue rehearses sloppy motion.
Where should I start with Hausa?
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 Hausa 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 Hausa 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.
Is Hausa hard to type?
Only slightly, if you already touch type. 2% of the practice words need a character outside a-z, one such character appears in total, and the rest is a keyboard you already know. The difficulty is concentrated in a handful of positions rather than spread across the layout.
Do I need an account, and is it free?
Neither. There is no paid tier and no required sign-in — the 84 Hausa practice words, the speed test and all three games are the whole product, available immediately. Signing in is worth it only if you practise on more than one device.
Also in Hausa: the speed test and typing games.
Other languages written in Latin: Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Javanese. Or browse all 86 by writing system.
Further reading
- Which finger types which keyThe standard finger assignment for every key on a QWERTY keyboard, why the index fingers carry two columns each, and the keys people get wrong.
- The top rowQ through P sit one row up from home, and every key there is a reach and a return. Which fingers do what, and why E and R feel different.
- How to type fasterSix changes that raise typing speed, in the order worth making them. Most people's fastest gain is not typing faster — it is stopping mistakes.