Lesson 3: Bottom Row Keys

Reaching down without moving your hands

The bottom row feels awkward at first because your fingers curl inward to reach it. The trick is to keep your wrists still and let the fingers do the travel. If your whole hand slides toward you, you will lose your home position and make errors on the next key.

Finger map for the bottom row

• Left pinky (red): Z
• Left ring finger (orange): X
• Left middle finger (green): C
• Left index finger (blue): V and B
• Right index finger (blue): N and M
• Right middle finger (green): the comma
• Right ring finger (orange): the period
• Right pinky (red): the slash

This lesson drills the letters Z through M. The comma, period, and slash get their own lesson on punctuation later.

How to practice

1. Begin with your fingers on the home row, then type the drill slowly.
2. Keep your fingers curved. A flat finger cannot reach down cleanly.
3. Treat each bottom-row key as a small round trip: down, press, back.
4. Drill the pairs that your index fingers share. B and N sit in the middle of the board, and it is easy to mix them up. Type bn bn bn then vm vm vm a few times.
5. Take a short break every few minutes. The bottom row uses the weakest fingers and they tire first.

Words to try

Practice with words that mix all three rows: zebra, extra, camera, number, movie, brown, excellent, vacation, climb, maximum. If a word trips you, slow down on the hard part and speed up on the easy part.

Common mistakes

• Moving the whole hand. Keep the palm steady. Only the fingers should travel.
• Typing C with the index finger. C belongs to the left middle finger. Train it early so you never have to unlearn the habit.
• Skipping Z and X. They are rare, so people avoid them. Rare keys are the easiest to forget, so give them a few extra repetitions.
• Looking down for B. B is a long reach for the left index finger. Practice it until your hand knows the distance.

What good progress looks like

After this lesson you have met every letter of the alphabet. Do not worry if you are slow. Most learners are slowest on the bottom row, and that is normal. A weak-key session can help here: the weak keys practice page builds drills from the keys you miss most often.

What's next

Now that the letters are done, you will add numbers on the top of the keyboard. Continue with Lesson 4: Number Row. If you want a break, play a round of a typing game to use your new keys in a fun setting.

Ready to measure your progress? Try the typing test, browse the Learn to Type lessons, or play a few typing games.

Frequently asked questions