Italian typing practice
Touch type in Italian, free in your browser: Smart Lessons in common Italian words, Collodi and Manzoni to type, and the accented vowels on an Italian, US or UK keyboard.
What you can practise
Smart Lessons in Italian
Real Italian words, built around your slowest key. You start on six keys, and Italian's own letters join as the others come up to speed.
The Italian alphabet
Every letter in order against the clock, with how to type each Italian letter on your keyboard.
Typing games in Italian
Pilot and Spaceship: steer through the gaps or shoot down enemy ships by typing Italian words.
6 Italian books
Classic Italian books, out of copyright, typed a passage at a time.
Italian letters
Italian writes an accent on a stressed final vowel, so accented letters come up constantly: "è" (is), "più", "città", "così", "però", "virtù". Most take the grave: à, è, ì, ò and ù. The acute é, a closed e, ends "perché", "poiché" and "né".
An Italian keyboard is QWERTY with a key for each: ò, à and ù to the right of L, è to the right of P, ì to the right of 0, and é as Shift with the è key. Shift on the others types ç, °, § and ^, so capital accented letters have no key. On a US or UK keyboard, US-International makes ` a dead key for the grave and ' one for the acute; on a Mac, Option ` and Option E.
On an Italian keyboard
Windows: Italian · macOS: Italian – Pro · Linux: Italian
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| à | À | À | À |
| é | Shift È | Shift È | Shift È |
| è | È | È | È |
| ì | Ì | Ì | Ì |
| ò | Ò | Ò | Ò |
| ù | Ù | Ù | Ù |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| à | `then A | Option `then A | `then A |
| é | 'then E | Option Ethen E | 'then E |
| è | `then E | Option `then E | `then E |
| ì | `then I | Option `then I | `then I |
| ò | `then O | Option `then O | `then O |
| ù | `then U | Option `then U | `then U |
Tips for typing Italian
È is a word on its own
"È" means "is" and is one of the commonest words in Italian. It sits to the right of P for the right little finger: reach up, press, and come back to the home row, as you would for P.
Perché takes é
Hold Shift with the left little finger and press the è key for é. "Perché", "poiché", "affinché" and "né" are the words that need it; practise them until Shift comes without a thought.
Mind the apostrophe on US-International
Italian elides all the time: "l'anno", "un'altra", "dell'acqua". On US-International ' is a dead key, so ' then a types á. Type ', then a space, then the vowel.
Three vowels by the right little finger
Ò, à and ù sit side by side after L, with ò where a US keyboard has the semicolon. The right little finger covers all three, ù furthest out by Enter.