Type あいうえお: Your First Five Kana and Ten Real Words

Why five keys matter more than they look

Most people start kana by memorising a chart. That works for reading, eventually. It does nothing for typing. On a keyboard, you don't need the chart — you need five keys and a habit.

In romaji input, you type the sound, and the software turns it into kana. Type a, get あ. Type i, get い. That's the whole trick. The keyboard is just a sound machine.

The five vowels

Here they are, with the readings:

• あ — a, as in father, but shorter
• い — i, as in machine, but shorter
• う — u, as in put, lips relaxed
• え — e, as in bet
• お — o, as in or, but shorter

One warning: Japanese vowels are short and even. Don't stretch them. おい is two clean beats, not "oh-ee."

Type these ten words

Each of these is made only of vowels. Type them slowly. Say them as you type.

1. あい (ai) — love
2. うえ (ue) — above, on top
3. おい (oi) — hey (calling someone)
4. あお (ao) — blue
5. いえ (ie) — house
6. あう (au) — to meet
7. いう (iu) — to say
8. おう (ou) — king
9. えい (ei) — yes, in some contexts; also a word for ray or influence in compounds
10. うお (uo) — fish (a plain, older word)

Some of these are more useful than others. あい, いえ, あお and うえ come up constantly. うお is rare in daily speech, but it's a clean vowel-only word and it's worth typing once.

If you're reading this in your city, the same five keys work on the phone in your pocket. The layout changes; the romaji does not.

Two traps that catch everyone

Trap one: おう is not always "ou." In many words, おう is read as a long o — おう sounds like "ō." So おう (king) is closer to "oh" held for two beats than "oh-oo." This matters later. For now, just type it correctly.

Trap two: えい is often a long e. Same idea. えい in many words reads as "ē." Again, type the kana; pronunciation comes with listening.

Neither trap changes what you type. They change what you hear. Keep them in the back of your mind.

The ten-second drill

Do this three times before you close the page:

1. Type あいうえお, in order, without looking down.
2. Type おえういあ, backwards.
3. Type あい, いえ, あお, うえ, おい — the five everyday words.

If you can do step three without hesitating, you've done the day's work. That's genuinely it.

What you can already do

You can type five kana. You can read ten words. You can look at あお and hear "blue" without translating in your head. That's not nothing — that's the floor of the whole system.

Tomorrow adds consonants, and consonants are where romaji typing stops being obvious. Because し is not typed si. And つ is not typed tu. There's a rule behind that, and once you see it, the rest of the keyboard falls into place.