TIMED PRACTICE · پښتو
Pashto typing speed test
Flow like a stream. Space commits a word, backspace fixes the last one. Tab or Esc restarts.
Testing your Pashto typing speed
Pashto is written in the Arabic 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.
The speed test and the games draw on one bank of 21 common Pashto words — 23 distinct characters in all, averaging 3.3 written units per word. Nothing about the test is fixed except the fairness of it: the same bank, sampled fresh, so a result today is comparable with a result next month. Duration, word count, punctuation and digits are all yours to set.
Not all keys are worth the same. Ten characters carry around 81% of everything you will type in these Pashto drills, and the remaining 13 share what is left. That is why the course introduces its material a little at a time rather than all at once: the early characters do a disproportionate amount of the work.
پښتو uses 23 distinct Arabic characters across the practice bank, and they do not sit in a line — marks go above, below and around the letters they modify. The Pashto Afghan layout arranges 28 of them across the keys you already have, and the guide shows the physical key alongside the character it writes. Pashto also runs right to left.
Watch what you have written rather than what you are pressing. In Pashto 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
- Pashto Afghan
- Direction
- right to left
- Mapped characters
- 28
- Practice words
- 21
- Distinct characters
- 23
- Average word
- 3.3 units
Characters that come up most in these Pashto words
- و11
- ا9
- ر7
- ل6
- ه6
- ک5
- م4
- ن3
- ی3
- د2
- ب1
- پ1
Counted across the 21 practice words — the ones worth recognising first.
A short bank. Pashto has 21 practice words here, which is few enough that a long run will repeat them. That is a gap rather than a decision: adding words to a tool whose whole purpose is that people practise typing them needs certainty about Pashto spelling, and a bank with a misspelling in it teaches the misspelling. Corrections are genuinely welcome.
آرام لاسونه اصلي کتار په اسانۍ سره موميRetroflex letters written with a small circle
Pashto uses the Arabic script with a substantial number of additions — letters for retroflex and other sounds that Arabic and Persian do not have, most of them written by adding a small circle beneath an existing letter: ټ, ډ, ړ, ږ, ڼ.
It has one of the larger Arabic-script alphabets as a result, around 45 letters, and a keyboard crowded enough that the standard Afghan layout uses shifted positions heavily.
Pashto is one of two official languages of Afghanistan alongside Dari, and is widely spoken in Pakistan. Its orthography has been standardised more than once and regional spelling variation remains common.
Questions about typing in Pashto
How is typing speed measured here?
In words per minute, where a "word" is a fixed five characters rather than an actual word. That convention is what makes a WPM figure comparable between languages whose real words are very different lengths. The number reported is net WPM: uncorrected mistakes are subtracted, so it reflects text you actually produced correctly.
Why is my Pashto speed lower than my English speed?
Because you are doing two things at once: finding the key and recalling what it writes. Speed in a script you have typed for years is one motion; speed in a new one is a lookup followed by a motion. The lookup is what disappears with practice, and when it does the gap closes faster than most people expect.
Is the Pashto typing test the same every time?
No. Words are drawn at random from the Pashto 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.
Do I need a Pashto keyboard?
No. A Pashto keyboard is a software setting: add the Pashto Afghan 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 Pashto keyboard layout do these tests use?
Pashto Afghan, with 28 characters mapped across the standard key positions. Pashto runs right to left, which both the practice text and the cursor respect. The 21 practice words between them use 23 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 Pashto?
21 of the most common words in Pashto, drawn at random. They use 23 distinct characters between them and average 3.3 written units each, with the longest running to about 5. 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 Pashto 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 3.3 units per word with a fairly compact inventory of 23 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 Pashto: lessons and typing games.
Other languages written in Arabic: Persian (Farsi), Urdu, Arabic, Kurdish (Sorani).
Other languages whose letters combine as you type: Punjabi, Sinhala. 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.
- The number rowNumbers and symbols sit two rows above home, and almost nobody drills them. Which finger takes which digit, and when to use the keypad instead.
- WPM, CPM and KPHWhy a typing word is five characters, how to convert between WPM, CPM and keystrokes per hour, and what net WPM subtracts.