The B key

This key, measured

Share of all letters

1.50%

Commonest letters

20th of 26

Finger

L index finger

Row

bottom row

Words using it

36 of 459

B is the 20th commonest letter in English prose: 777,901 of the 51,993,314 letters in the 111 public-domain books this site cuts its practice texts from — 1.50%, or once every 67. On a QWERTY keyboard it sits on the bottom row, so the left index finger leaves the home row for it and has to come straight back. The pairs it turns up in most are BE (258,611), BU (106,405), BL (90,550) going out of it and AB (83,451), MB (27,997), OB (25,525) coming into it, so those are the two-key rolls worth getting smooth. In the course it arrives in lesson 15, the B and N 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 B

be · but · by · about · back · because · been · began · believed · brought · remembered · bought · built · number · book · job

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.