Finnish typing practice
Learn to touch type Finnish free online: Smart Lessons from real Finnish words, long and full of double letters, Finnish books to type, and ä and ö on any keyboard.
What you can practise
Smart Lessons in Finnish
Real Finnish words, built around your slowest key. You start on six keys, and ä and ö join as the others come up to speed.
The Finnish alphabet
Every letter in order against the clock, with how to type each Finnish letter on your keyboard.
Typing games in Finnish
Pilot and Spaceship: steer through the gaps or shoot down enemy ships by typing Finnish words.
6 Finnish books
Classic Finnish books, out of copyright, typed a passage at a time.
Finnish letters
Finnish needs only two letters beyond a to z, ä and ö, but it uses them constantly: "tämä" (this), "työ" (work), "yö" (night), "pöytä" (table), "hyvää" (good, as in "hyvää päivää"). They are vowels in their own right, not a and o with dots, and vowel harmony often puts several in one word. Smart Lessons bring each one in once the letters before it are up to speed.
A Finnish keyboard is laid out like a Swedish one: Ö right of L and Ä right of Ö, the last two keys of the home row. On a US or UK keyboard, US-International turns Shift+' into a dead key: press it, then A or O. On a Mac with ABC – Extended it is Option+U, then the vowel.
On a Finnish keyboard
Windows: Finnish · macOS: Finnish · Linux: Finnish
Add it in Windows under Settings > Time & language > Language & region, in macOS under System Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources, in Linux under Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources.
| Letter | Windows | macOS | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| ä | Ä | Ä | Ä |
| ö | Ö | Ö | Ö |
On a US or UK keyboard
Windows: United States-International · macOS: ABC – Extended · Linux: English (US, intl., with dead keys)
Add it the same way. On US-International ' and " become dead keys: type a space after one for the mark itself.
| Letter | Windows | macOS | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| ä | Shift 'then A | Option Uthen A | Shift 'then A |
| ö | Shift 'then O | Option Uthen O | Shift 'then O |
Tips for typing Finnish
Ä is a home-row key
Ö and Ä end the home row, both for the right little finger. Ä is more common in Finnish than many letters from a to z, so practise reaching it without lifting the hand: "tämä", "että", "pöytä".
Keep a rhythm on double letters
Finnish doubles vowels and consonants: "hyvää", "tällä", "kattaa", "tuuli". Press the same key twice in an even beat rather than pausing between the two, and count both presses.
Set up a layout rather than copying letters
On a US or UK keyboard ä and ö are two presses each, and they come in nearly every sentence. Add US-International or the Finnish layout once and practise Shift+' then the vowel until it feels like one movement.