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TIMED PRACTICE · Türkçe

Turkish typing speed test

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Testing your Turkish typing speed

Turkish uses the Latin alphabet you already have. The practice words here add 6 characters beyond a-z — ü, ı, ç, ğ, ş and more.

Turkish sits on the same QWERTY keys as English, and these practice words then ask for 6 more: ü, ı, ç, ğ, ş and ö. 40% of the practice words here need one — a large minority of words — which is often enough that reaching for them should be a trained motion rather than a hunt through a character map.

Pick a duration or a word count, turn punctuation and digits on if you want them, and type 53 common Turkish 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.

Speed in Turkish 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.

Worth knowing before you start: these 53 words use 26 distinct characters, and the effort is not spread evenly across them. Ten of them do roughly 65% of the work, so the first week of practice buys far more than the tenth will. That is the normal shape of it, not a sign of a plateau.

Writing system
Latin
Keyboard layout
Latin QWERTY family
Direction
left to right
Practice words
53
Distinct characters
26
Average word
3.8 units

Characters beyond a-z in the Turkish practice words

  1. ü10
  2. ı7
  3. ç4
  4. ğ2
  5. ş2
  6. ö1

Counted across the 53 practice words. 40% of them need at least one.

bir ve bu da ne için çok daha gibi ama ben sen
The 12 commonest words in Turkish — where the drills begin.

The F-keyboard, and why almost nobody uses it

Turkey has a keyboard layout designed for Turkish, and it is a genuinely good one. The F-keyboard was developed in the 1950s from an analysis of Turkish letter frequency, balances the load between the hands more evenly than QWERTY manages for any language, and became a Turkish standard in 1974. Turkish speed-typing records are set on it.

Almost nobody uses it. The Q-keyboard — QWERTY with ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş and ü added — is what is sold, what is installed, and what these lessons teach. The F-keyboard's advantage was real and arrived too late to overcome the installed base, which is the same story as Dvorak with a better-supported design.

One feature of Turkish orthography catches every programmer and many typists: Turkish has a dotless ı and a dotted i as separate letters, and capital I is the capital of ı while capital İ is the capital of i. It is the most famous case-conversion trap in software, and on a keyboard it means two distinct keys where English has one.

Questions about typing in Turkish

Do I need a Turkish keyboard?

No, though you do need the right layout selected. 6 characters in the practice words here sit outside a-z, and they come up in 40% of those words — often enough that copying them from a character map will hold you back, and rare enough that people try to.

Which Turkish keyboard layout do these tests use?

Latin QWERTY family, plus the 6 characters beyond a-z that these practice words use. The 53 practice words between them use 26 of those 32, so 6 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 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.

How long should a Turkish typing test be?

Longer than you would like. A 15-second test measures your sprint and flatters you; over two minutes your sustainable speed shows up, along with the fact that concentration runs out. If you want one number that describes you rather than your best moment, take the longer one.

What will I actually be typing in Turkish?

53 of the most common words in Turkish, drawn at random. They use 26 distinct characters between them and average 3.8 written units each, with the longest running to about 7. 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 Turkish hard to type?

Only slightly, if you already touch type. 40% of the practice words need a character outside a-z, 6 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 Turkish: lessons and typing games.

Other languages written in Latin: Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yoruba, Zulu, Afrikaans. Or browse all 86 by writing system.

Further reading