The A key

This key, measured

Share of all letters

8.11%

Commonest letters

3rd of 26

Finger

L little finger

Row

home (resting)

Words using it

160 of 459

A is the 3rd commonest letter in English prose: 4,216,505 of the 51,993,314 letters in the 111 public-domain books this site cuts its practice texts from — 8.11%, or once every 12. On a QWERTY keyboard it is a home key, so the left little finger is already on it and there is no reach to get wrong. The pairs it turns up in most are AN (874,053), AT (541,304), AS (433,751) going out of it and HA (579,246), EA (321,272), WA (280,294) coming into it, so those are the two-key rolls worth getting smooth. In the course it arrives in lesson 4, the A and semicolon keys.

The pairs it lives in

Two-key rolls are what fast typing is made of: practise the pair, not the letter.

Common words with A

and · a · that · have · as · at · say · an · all · what · about · make · can · take · year · than

Keep going

Keep going

• Typing test

  Gross and net WPM, accuracy and keystrokes per hour — the figures typing exams use, at eight lengths from 15 seconds to 15 minutes.

• Typing lessons

  Fifteen short lessons, two new keys at a time, with the keyboard showing which finger goes where.

• Practice texts

  Type a passage from a classic book: real sentences, capitals and punctuation, with the numbers that say how hard each one is.

• Key drills

  A drill for each row, hand, finger and kind of character — and how much of English prose each set of keys actually carries.

• Typing speed

  What a speed means in characters, keystrokes per hour and minutes per page — and a test paced to the number you are aiming at.

• Weak keys

  A drill built from the keys you miss most, worked out from your own tests.

• Times tables

  Each table with its patterns, a drill that returns to what you got wrong, and a 60-second speed test.