TIMED PRACTICE · ไทย
Thai typing speed test
Flow like a stream. Space commits a word, backspace fixes the last one. Tab or Esc restarts.
Testing your Thai typing speed
Thai 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.
Typing Thai is not a matter of one key, one character. The Thai script combines consonants, vowel signs and modifiers into single written clusters, which means you compose a syllable and watch it assemble itself as you go. The Kedmanee layout maps 28 characters across the standard key positions to make that composing order predictable.
The speed test and the games draw on one bank of 51 common Thai words — 38 distinct characters in all, averaging 3 written units per word. A test can run for a fixed duration or a fixed number of words, with punctuation and numbers optional. Words are drawn at random each time, so no two runs are the same and there is nothing to memorise. The result reports net speed, accuracy, how steady you were across the run, and the five keys you got wrong most often.
The distribution is lopsided, which is the useful part. Across the 51 practice words, 38 distinct characters appear — and the single most common accounts for about 9% of every letter typed, with the top ten covering roughly 57%. Drilling the frequent ones first is where almost all of the benefit is.
Watch what you have written rather than what you are pressing. In Thai 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
- Thai
- Keyboard layout
- Kedmanee
- Direction
- left to right
- Mapped characters
- 28
- Practice words
- 51
- Distinct characters
- 38
- Average word
- 3 units
Characters that come up most in these Thai words
- ่20
- น19
- ก14
- ี12
- ง11
- ล10
- า10
- เ10
- ้9
- ห9
- ั9
- ม8
Counted across the 51 practice words — the ones worth recognising first.
มือที่สงบค้นหาแถวหลักของแป้นพิมพ์ได้อย่างง่ายดายNo spaces between words, and four levels of keys
Thai does not put spaces between words. Spaces mark the ends of clauses and sentences instead, which means working out where one word ends and the next begins is something the reader does — and something software has to be taught to do, making Thai word-breaking a well-known hard problem.
The script has 44 consonants, 15 vowel symbols that combine into around 28 forms, and four tone marks. Vowels can be written before, after, above or below the consonant they follow in speech, so the visual order and the typing order are not the same.
That volume of characters means the Thai keyboard uses all four levels — unshifted and shifted, across both the letter block and the number row — and the number row carries Thai characters rather than digits in the unshifted position. Kedmanee is the standard layout; Pattachote is a more efficient alternative from the 1960s that, as usual, lost.
Questions about typing in Thai
Do I need a Thai keyboard?
No. A Thai keyboard is a software setting: add the Kedmanee layout in your operating system's keyboard settings and your existing keys begin producing Thai characters, with the marks composing as you type them in order.
Why does my score change so much between attempts?
Partly the draw and partly you. No two runs of the Thai typing test use the same words — they are sampled fresh from the bank each time, so one attempt can hand you a friendlier set than the next — and concentration varies more than most people credit. Take three and look at the middle one rather than the best.
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 Thai 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.
Which Thai keyboard layout do these tests use?
Kedmanee, with 28 characters mapped across the standard key positions. The 51 practice words between them use 38 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 Thai?
51 of the most common words in Thai, drawn at random. They use 38 distinct characters between them and average 3 written units each, with the longest running to about 8. 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 Thai 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 units per word with a fairly compact inventory of 38 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 Thai: lessons and typing games.
Other languages whose letters combine as you type: Urdu, Arabic, Assamese, Bengali, Burmese, Gujarati. Or browse all 86 by writing system.
Further reading
- Typing Thai: four levels, and no spaces between wordsThai writes without spaces and needs more characters than one keyboard level holds. What that means for a typist, and what a keyboard chart can show.
- 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.