How to study · 4 min
Typing Japanese on a keyboard
You type romaji and kana come out. Setup takes five minutes and the rules fit in ten lines.
Turning on an IME
- macOS — System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources → + → Japanese → Romaji.
- Windows — Settings → Time & language → Language → Add a language → Japanese. Microsoft IME comes with it.
- iPhone · iPad — Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New → Japanese → Romaji.
- Android — Settings → System → Languages & input → add Japanese to your keyboard.
Choose Romaji input, not Kana input. Kana input maps kana directly onto a Japanese physical keyboard layout, which is not what you have.
The basic rules
| You type | You get |
|---|---|
| ka | か |
| shi or si | し |
| tsu or tu | つ |
| kya | きゃ |
| kitte (doubled consonant) | きって |
| nn, or n before a consonant | ん |
| xya or lya | ゃ (small only) |
| xtu or ltu | っ (small only) |
| - (hyphen) | ー (long-vowel mark) |
ん is the fiddly one
Type a single n and the IME waits, because an a might follow and make な.
So the safe habit is nn. Typing "hon" leaves you at ほn; typing "honn" completes ほん.
A single n is fine before a consonant — both konnichiwa and konichiwa give こんにちは. If you are building a habit, nn causes fewer surprises.
Converting to kanji
After typing kana, press space to bring up kanji candidates. Arrow to one and press Enter to confirm.
Type にほん and press space and you are offered 日本, 二本 and more. There are several because Japanese has many homophones.
To keep it as kana, press Enter without pressing space. For katakana, press F7 on Windows, or pick the katakana candidate from the list.
With an IME installed you can type out a word you just heard and look it up immediately. It is the first tool worth setting up after kana.