עברית · Beginner 1(a)
Learn to type in Hebrew
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. עברית layout labels appear below — and between them these three rows produce every character the practice words here use.
Learning to type in Hebrew
Hebrew is written in its own script. The Hebrew QWERTY layout maps 31 characters across the keys you already have, so every motion transfers and every letter moves. Text runs right to left.
Nine stages take you from the home row outwards, adding a few keys at a time and drilling them as sequences rather than as words — the point at this stage is the position, not the vocabulary. Each stage holds several drills, and each drill wants three clean passes before it counts — by default, and Settings will change it: not three attempts, three clean ones. Slower at the start, considerably faster by the middle.
One number is worth carrying into the first session. About 72% of the letters in these Hebrew 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.
A Hebrew keyboard is a setting, not a purchase. Selecting the Hebrew QWERTY layout in your operating system repoints 31 of the keys you already have at Hebrew characters; nothing about the hardware changes. The guide below shows both faces of each key at once, the letter printed on the cap and the one it will actually write.
The hard part of Hebrew is not the hands, it is the map. Most people find the motions transfer immediately and the recall does not: you know the key you want and cannot say where it is. That gap closes with repetition, and closes faster if you resist looking.
- Writing system
- Hebrew
- Keyboard layout
- Hebrew QWERTY
- Direction
- right to left
- Mapped characters
- 31
- Practice words
- 54
- Distinct characters
- 26
- Average word
- 3.1 units
Characters you will press most in these Hebrew words
- י23
- א15
- ש14
- ו12
- ל11
- ה10
- ם10
- ב9
- ד9
- ע8
- ר8
- ח6
Counted across the 54 practice words — the characters worth getting right first.
הידיים הרגועות מוצאות את שורת הבית בקלות ובתרגולNo vowels, and five letters that change at the end of a word
Standard written Hebrew omits vowels. They exist as a system of dots and dashes called niqqud, used in dictionaries, poetry, children's books and scripture, and left out of ordinary text — readers supply them from context and from knowing the language.
Five letters take a different form when they end a word: kaf, mem, nun, pe and tsadi each have a final variant. They are separate characters with separate keys, and using the wrong one is a spelling error rather than a stylistic choice.
Hebrew runs right to left, but numbers within Hebrew text run left to right, which makes mixed text one of the more entertaining problems in text layout. The standard Hebrew keyboard layout has been essentially unchanged since mechanical typewriters.
Questions about typing in Hebrew
Do I need a Hebrew keyboard?
No, and this is the part people most often get wrong. A Hebrew keyboard is a software setting: add the Hebrew QWERTY layout in your operating system's keyboard settings and the keys under your fingers begin producing Hebrew characters. Keycaps with Hebrew letters printed on them are a convenience for people who look down, and if you are learning to touch type you are learning not to.
How often should I practise Hebrew?
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 Hebrew?
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 Hebrew 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 Hebrew 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.
Which Hebrew keyboard layout do these lessons use?
Hebrew QWERTY, with 31 characters mapped across the standard key positions. Hebrew runs right to left, which both the practice text and the cursor respect. The 54 practice words between them use 26 of those 31, so 5 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 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 Hebrew?
Sequences of the keys each stage has introduced — single letters first, then pairs, then short chunks — in Hebrew as the Hebrew QWERTY 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 54 common Hebrew words in the practice bank are what the speed test samples and what the games pull from, once the positions stop needing thought.
Is Hebrew hard to type?
Harder to start, not harder to reach. Every motion you already have transfers; what does not is the map, and 31 key positions have to be relearned. With a fairly compact inventory of 26 characters across the practice bank, most people are past the worst of it inside two weeks of short daily sessions.
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 Hebrew: the speed test and typing games.
Other languages that move the alphabet onto the same keys: Korean, Tigrinya, Amharic, Armenian, Georgian, Greek. Or browse all 86 by writing system.
Further reading
- Typing Hebrew: five final letters and no vowelsHebrew leaves its vowels out, changes five letters at the end of a word, and runs right to left except for its numbers. What each means at the keyboard.
- What counts as a good typing speedGood depends on what you type and how accurately. A guide to the bands, why accuracy beats speed, and what employers actually ask for.
- Typing codeCode is symbol-dense, punctuation-heavy and hard on the little fingers. Why fast prose typists are often mediocre code typists, and what to drill.