Romanian typing practice
Learn to touch type in Romanian, free in your browser: lessons from real Romanian words, Ion Creangă's stories to type, and the keys for ă, â, î, ș and ț, with or without a Romanian keyboard.
What you can practise
Smart Lessons in Romanian
Real Romanian words, built around your slowest key. You start on six keys, and ă, â, î, ș and ț join as the others come up to speed.
The Romanian alphabet
Every letter in order against the clock, with how to type each Romanian letter on your keyboard.
Typing games in Romanian
Pilot and Spaceship: steer through the gaps or shoot down enemy ships by typing Romanian words.
6 Romanian books
Classic Romanian books, out of copyright, typed a passage at a time.
Romanian letters
Romanian has five letters beyond a to z, and they are in nearly every sentence: ă in "să" and "până", â in "când" and "România", î in "în" and "înainte", ș in "și" and "școală", ț in "țară" and "ține". Â and î stand for the same sound: î begins and ends words, â comes inside them.
The Romanian Standard layout is QWERTY with a key for each: ă and î to the right of P, ș and ț to the right of L, â by Enter. Many people use Romanian Programmers instead, the US layout with the letters on AltGr. On a US or UK keyboard with US-International, Shift 6 then the vowel types â and î, but Windows has no ă, ș or ț and Linux no ș or ț; ABC – Extended on a Mac types all five, with Option B for ă and Option P for ș and ț.
On a Romanian keyboard
Windows: Romanian (Standard) · macOS: Romanian – Standard · Linux: Romanian (standard)
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ă | Ă | Ă | Ă |
| â | Â | Â | Â |
| î | Î | Î | Î |
| ș | Ș | Ș | Ș |
| ț | Ț | Ț | Ț |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ă | Not on this layout | Option Bthen A | AltGr Shift 9then A |
| â | Shift 6then A | Option 6then A | Shift 6then A |
| î | Shift 6then I | Option 6then I | Shift 6then I |
| ș | Not on this layout | Option Pthen S | Not on this layout |
| ț | Not on this layout | Option Pthen T | Not on this layout |
Tips for typing Romanian
Comma, not cedilla
Romanian spelling uses ș and ț with a comma below. Some older layouts type ş and ţ with a cedilla instead: they look alike but are different characters. The Standard layout types the comma ones.
Programmers on a US keyboard
Windows' Romanian (Programmers) layout keeps every US key and adds the letters on AltGr: AltGr A for ă, AltGr Q for â, AltGr I for î, AltGr S for ș and AltGr T for ț. On Linux the plain Romanian layout is the same one. It is the easiest way to type Romanian without Romanian key caps.
Four letters for one finger
On the Standard layout ă, î, ș and ț all sit to the right of P and L, for the right little finger. "și" and "în" come in almost every line, so these keys are worth drilling until the reach is automatic.
Î or â
Both letters sound the same, so the choice is spelling, not keys: î at the start or end of a word, as in "în" and "a urî", â in the middle, as in "când" and "pâine", and in "România".