TIMED PRACTICE · Gaeilge
Irish typing speed test
Flow like a stream. Space commits a word, backspace fixes the last one. Tab or Esc restarts.
Testing your Irish typing speed
Irish uses the Latin alphabet you already have. The practice words here add 5 characters beyond a-z — á, í, é, ó, ú.
Speed in Irish comes from prediction more than from finger speed: a familiar word is one motion, an unfamiliar one is a letter at a time. That is why drilling common words works — you are not training keys so much as the shapes the language keeps repeating.
The awkward part of Irish is not the alphabet, it is the 5 characters these practice words put outside it: á, í, é, ó and ú. Whether your layout gives them a dedicated key or builds them from a modifier, the reach has to become a trained motion rather than a decision — they turn up in 38% of the practice words.
Pick a duration or a word count, turn punctuation and digits on if you want them, and type 87 common Irish words in whatever order the shuffle produces. Because the words come fresh each run there is nothing to learn by repetition — a second attempt measures you, not your memory. Afterwards: net WPM, accuracy, a consistency figure and the keys you missed most.
Of the 23 characters these 87 words use, one alone accounts for roughly 15%. Frequencies like that are why touch typing can be learned at all — you are not memorising 23 equally important characters, you are automating a handful and filling in the rest over time.
- Writing system
- Latin
- Keyboard layout
- Latin QWERTY family
- Direction
- left to right
- Practice words
- 87
- Distinct characters
- 23
- Average word
- 4.7 units
Characters beyond a-z in the Irish practice words
- á13
- í8
- é7
- ó5
- ú1
Counted across the 87 practice words. 38% of them need at least one.
agus an na ar is do le go ach tá níl mórThe fada, and the script Irish used to use
Modern Irish is written in the Latin alphabet with one diacritic, the síneadh fada — a long accent over a, e, i, o or u. It marks vowel length and changes meaning: seán and sean are different words, and getting it wrong in a name is noticed.
Until the mid-twentieth century Irish was commonly printed in the Gaelic script, an insular typeface with distinct letterforms and a dot above certain consonants to mark lenitation. The dot was replaced by a following h during the same reform that adopted Roman type, which is why modern Irish has so many h's in it.
The Irish keyboard is a UK layout; the fada is produced with AltGr and the vowel, or with a dead key, depending on the system.
Questions about typing in Irish
Do I need an Irish keyboard?
No, though you do need the right layout selected. 5 characters in the practice words here sit outside a-z, and they come up in 38% of those words — often enough that copying them from a character map will hold you back, and rare enough that people try to.
Which Irish keyboard layout do these tests use?
Latin QWERTY family, plus the 5 characters beyond a-z that these practice words use. The 87 practice words between them use 23 of those 31, so 8 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.
Is the Irish typing test the same every time?
No. Words are drawn at random from the Irish bank on every run, so there is nothing to memorise and a second attempt is a fresh test rather than a rehearsal. You can fix the duration or the word count, turn punctuation and numbers on, or paste your own text.
What is the difference between raw and net WPM?
Raw counts everything you typed; net subtracts what you got wrong and left wrong. A large gap between the two is the most useful signal on the results screen — it means the speed is there and the accuracy is not, which is a different problem from simply being slow, and a faster one to fix.
Does accuracy matter more than speed?
For a score, they are the same measurement — net WPM already penalises errors. For improving, accuracy matters more, because the fastest route to a higher number is almost always removing mistakes rather than moving your fingers faster.
What will I actually be typing in Irish?
87 of the most common words in Irish, drawn at random. They use 23 distinct characters between them and average 4.7 written units each, with the longest running to about 9. Short, frequent words are used on purpose: they are the ones your hands will meet most often outside a lesson, so the practice transfers.
Is Irish hard to type?
Only slightly, if you already touch type. 38% of the practice words need a character outside a-z, 5 such characters appear 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?
No account, no payment, no trial. Progress is stored in this browser, which is enough until you want it on a second device or on a leaderboard — that is the only thing an account buys, and it is optional.
Also in Irish: lessons and typing games.
Other languages written in Latin: Italian, Javanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Malay. Or browse all 86 by writing system.
Further reading
- The home rowASDF and JKL; are where every touch typist's hands return. What the home row is, why the bumps are there, and how to drill it properly.
- How hard is each script to type? Every keyboard here, measuredThirty-five keyboards, four things counted about each: how many keys they define, how much of the language they reach, and how large its character set is.
- Do typing games help, and what do they measure?Games are a good diagnostic and a poor teacher. What pressure exposes that a calm test does not, and the limit of playing your way to a faster speed.