Need a shortcut for some of those miscellaneous typing issues?

How do I type the “ー” in ビー玉?

ー is the dash or minus symbol on your keyboard. It will automatically convert to the Japanese version during your Lessons and Reviews.

How do I type in katakana?

You don’t need to type in katakana!

For words like アメリカ人 just go with あめりかじん and we’ll mark it right. But if you really want to type in katakana, just hit the shift or caps-lock key before you start typing.

How do I type the small tsu?

To type the small tsu, you don’t have to type ltu or xtsu or any of those other combinations. Think about what っ means in Japanese. It’s there to mark a double consonant. To express this using romaji, you need to type the consontant twice in a row. Your Japanese keyboard will know what to do and generate a っ in the proper place.

Here are some of examples of how to type the small tsu in some of the early level vocabulary you’ll encounter:

みっつ = mittsu
やっつ = yattsu
よっつ = yottsu

As you can see, the consonant that is being doubled is the one that appears (in romaji) right after the small tsu. In the case of the examples above, we are doubling the “t” in “tsu.”

How do I type づ or ぢ?

To type all of the だぢづでど sounds, you need to use the “d” key.

だ = da
ぢ = di
づ = du
で = de
ど = do

So when you want to type words like 続く, it’s:

つづく = tsuduku

Why is it like this?! It’s a mix of consistency and convenience. It’s easier to type two letters than three, plus, you can’t use “zu” when ず exists, you know?