Practicing Romaji Input

On a computer, most people type Japanese with romaji input: each kana is typed as a combination of Latin consonant and vowel letters. This page is for learners of Japanese. The basics, such as か = ka and さ = sa, are quick to learn, but many people get stuck on characters like ん, っ and ゃ. Here we explain how to type the tricky ones and how to practice Japanese questions in Kneading Cat Typing.

Before you start: turn Japanese input off

The Japanese questions in Kneading Cat Typing check the letters you type directly and turn them into kana as you go. So turn off your computer’s Japanese input method (IME) and type in half-width alphanumeric mode. If Japanese input is on, a warning appears on screen. Japanese questions start at “Maneki-neko Debut”, after the key-position ranks of the “JIS Keyboard - Japanese (Romaji)” course.

There is more than one spelling

In romaji input, the same kana can be typed in several ways. For example, し can be shi, si or ci; ち can be chi or ti; つ can be tsu or tu; ふ can be fu or hu; and じ can be ji or zi. This app accepts basically every spelling that a Japanese input method on a computer accepts.

The screen shows a recommended spelling (close to Hepburn: shi, chi, tsu, fu, ji and so on) as a model, but if you start with si, the model switches to si from then on. What matters is choosing one spelling as your own and always using it. Repeating the same finger pattern lets you type each kana as one chunk of movement.

Typing ん (n)

ん is typed with n, but whether one n is enough or you need two depends on the next character. When in doubt, remember: “before a vowel (a, i, u, e, o) or a y-sound, use nn”.

• Before a character that starts with a consonant, a single n is fine: ほんだな (hondana, “bookshelf”) and さんぽ (sanpo, “a walk”).
• Before a vowel or a y-sound, you need nn (or n' or xn), because n followed by a would be read as な. げんいん (“cause”) is gennin or gen'in, not genin (which would be げにん), and こんや (“tonight”) is konnya.
• Before a character in the n-row (a sound starting with n), that character’s own n acts as the second n: こんにちは (“hello”) can be typed konnichiha, with just two n’s (typing ん as nn, konnnichiha, is also correct).
• At the end of a sentence, ん can be either n or nn.

Typing っ (small tsu)

The small っ, which marks a doubled consonant, is basically typed by doubling the first consonant of the next character: きって (kitte, “stamp”), ざっし (zasshi or zassi, “magazine”), and まっちゃ (maccha, matcha or mattya, “matcha”). Before ち, you can double the c (cchi) or add a t (tchi).

When the consonant cannot be doubled, for example when the next character starts with a vowel or the っ comes at the end of a sentence, type っ on its own. The standalone spellings are xtu, ltu, xtsu and ltsu. You can also use them where doubling would work.

Typing ゃ, ゅ and ょ (contracted sounds)

Contracted sounds such as きゃ, しゅ and ちょ combine an i-row character with a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ. You can type them in one go or as two characters.

• In one go: add y after the consonant, as in きゃ = kya, ぎゅ = gyu and にょ = nyo. しゃ can be sha or sya; ちゃ can be cha, tya or cya; じゃ can be ja, zya or jya.
• As two characters: the small ゃ, ゅ and ょ on their own are xya, xyu and xyo (or lya, lyu and lyo), so きゃ can also be typed ki + xya = kixya.

The small ぁぃぅぇぉ on their own are xa, xi, xu, xe and xo (or la, li, lu, le and lo). Sounds common in loanwords also have one-go spellings: ふぁ is fa, てぃ is thi, でぃ is dhi, うぃ is wi and しぇ is she.

Katakana, long vowels and punctuation

In this app, katakana must be typed while holding Shift (in uppercase), and the model shows katakana in uppercase. For example, アイス (“ice cream”) is typed AISU. Releasing Shift in the middle of a katakana word makes everything from that letter on count as a typo, so keep holding it until the last letter of the katakana.

The long-vowel mark ー is typed with the minus key (-). The Japanese comma 、 is the comma key (,), the period 。 is the period key (.), the quotation marks 「」 are [ and ], and the middle dot ・ is the slash key (/). The Maneki-neko ranks include questions with these marks too.

How to practice with Kneading Cat Typing

1. First learn the letter key positions in the key-position ranks (Right Paw, Left Paw and Kneading). Romaji input uses the vowel keys (a, i, u, e, o) constantly, so building a sense of distance from the home position here makes Japanese practice much easier.
2. After the number and symbol ranks, move on to “Maneki-neko Debut”. It starts with short words such as ねこ (“cat”) and こんにちは (“hello”) and goes up to short sentences.
3. “Maneki-neko: Full Mastery” has longer sentences with ん, っ and punctuation. After that come the long-text ranks, where you type a cat’s story chapter by chapter.

As you type, the romaji model turns into the actual kana, so you can see at a glance how far you have typed correctly. After a typo you cannot move on until you delete it with Backspace, so you can find out exactly where ん or っ trips you up. The questions themselves are not translated.

Tips when you get stuck

If you keep missing the same character, settle on a single spelling for it. If ん is the problem, decide to always type nn before a vowel or a y-sound, and the hesitation disappears. For っ too, put typing slowly and accurately first until doubling the consonant feels natural. Questions you have passed can be retyped as many times as you like in practice mode, so picking questions with your weak characters and repeating them works well. The rules are also summarized in How to Play.