This Italian typing test gives you genuine Italian words and short passages – perché, città, già, più, così – so the accents you practise are the ones you will really type. In Italian it is a test di dattilografia or test di battitura, and speed is often counted in battute al minuto (keystrokes per minute). It is free, needs no registration and works in any browser.
In breve, in italiano: qui fai un test di velocità di scrittura al computer, sulla tastiera, online e gratis, con testi in italiano. Scegli la durata, scrivi e vedi subito quante parole e battute fai al minuto. Lezioni e test sono gratis: apprendimento della dattilografia online passo dopo passo, senza iscrizione. Per scrivere veloce alla tastiera servono dieci dita e un po' di pratica ogni giorno.
What makes typing Italian different
Italian uses only 21 native letters (j, k, w, x and y appear mostly in foreign words), but it adds accented vowels at the end of many common words: à è é ì ò ù. The accent changes meaning – è means "is" while e means "and"; là means "there" while la is "the". Italian also has two different accents on e: the open è in è and caffè, and the closed é in perché, poiché and né.
The good news: the Italian keyboard gives each common accented vowel its own key, so à, è, ì, ò and ù cost one keystroke, not two. The awkward part is double consonants – tutto, anno, notte, ragazza – which trip many typists into typing the letter once or three times. Short words joined by apostrophes (l'acqua, un'altra, dell'anno) also mean you reach for the apostrophe key constantly.
How to type Italian accents here
- Your own Italian keyboard. If your computer is set to Italian, keep the default option and type normally.
- The built-in Italian layout. Choose "Italian" in the Keyboard menu and an English keyboard types Italian: [ becomes è, ; becomes ò, ' becomes à, \ becomes ù and = becomes ì. The on-screen keyboard shows the Italian keycaps with finger colours, and the hands show which finger to use.
On a phone the built-in layout is switched off. Type with your phone keyboard and hold a vowel to pick the accented version.
Italian keyboard: where the accented letters are
| Character | On an Italian keyboard | On a US keyboard (built-in Italian layout) |
|---|---|---|
| è / é | Key right of P (Shift for é) | [ / Shift+[ |
| ò / ç | Key right of L (Shift for ç) | ; / Shift+; |
| à / ° | Key right of ò (Shift for °) | ' / Shift+' |
| ù / § | Key right of à, next to Enter | \ / Shift+\ |
| ì / ^ | Key left of Backspace | = / Shift+= |
| ' (apostrophe) / ? | Key right of 0 | - / Shift+- |
| + / * | Key right of è | ] / Shift+] |
| - (hyphen) / _ | Bottom row, right of the full stop | / / Shift+/ |
A real Italian keyboard has no key for capital È. Many people type E' instead, but the correct form is È; on Windows you can type it with Alt+0200 on the numeric keypad. On an Italian keyboard @ and # are on AltGr + ò and AltGr + à.
Types of typing test: what a test di dattilografia consists of
What is a typing test? A typing test (test di dattilografia) asks you to copy a text for a fixed time; the score is your speed and your accuracy. The test dattilografia italiano here is either a stream of Italian words or a paragraph, a timer you choose, and a result screen with:
- WPM – correct characters divided by 5, per minute.
- Raw WPM – the same, counting mistakes too.
- Accuracy – the share of keystrokes that were right.
- CPM – characters per minute, close to battute al minuto.
- Consistency and a speed chart – how steady you were from start to finish.
WPM = (correct characters ÷ 5) ÷ minutes
Accuracy = correct keystrokes ÷ all keystrokes × 100
Worked example: in a 3 minute Italian typing test you type 720 characters, 690 of them correct. Your speed is (690 ÷ 5) ÷ 3 = 46 WPM and your raw speed is (720 ÷ 5) ÷ 3 = 48 WPM. With 690 correct keystrokes out of 720, accuracy is about 95.8%. That is 230 correct characters per minute – roughly 230 battute al minuto.
Italian typing speed: what counts as good?
A typing average test puts most adults at about 35–40 WPM, and Italian speeds are similar once the accent keys are familiar. Typical ranges:
| Level | WPM | About battute al minuto |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | under 25 | under 125 |
| Average | 30–40 | 150–200 |
| Good office typist | 50–60 | 250–300 |
| Fast | 70+ | 350+ |
Some Italian public competitions (concorsi pubblici) and employment agencies have included a typing trial measured in battute. The rules differ each time, so always check the official notice (bando) for the exam you are taking. More benchmarks are on the average typing speed page.
Running a simulazione test dattilografia
To simulate an exam or job test, match its conditions: the same length, the same kind of text, and no looking at the keyboard.
- Set the timer to the exam length – 5 or 10 minutes is typical for a speed test dattilografia.
- If the exam uses a set passage, paste a similar Italian text into the custom typing test.
- Turn on stop-on-error mode if the exam will not let you move on past a mistake.
- Turn on numbers if the exam includes figures – a typing test with numbers is noticeably slower for most people.
- Repeat on different days and compare your results on the My progress page.
From easy level to the most difficult typing test
The typing test easy level here is a 25-word test of common Italian words with no punctuation – a good start for beginners. Step up to a 1 minute timed test, then a paragraph, and finally the most difficult typing test on the site: a 10 minute Italian paragraph with punctuation and numbers turned on. The most popular typing test length is 1 minute, because it is short enough to repeat many times a day.
Corso di dattilografia and ATA points: what this site is and is not
In Italy many people look for a corso dattilografia because a recognised typing certificate can add points in the rankings for school support staff (personale ATA). Those courses come from accredited providers and end with an esame finale. A corso dattilografia may come from an ente pubblico, a university or a private company, and some pair typing with alfabetizzazione digitale (basic computer skills) in one corso. This site is not one of them: its dattilografia online lessons and free certificate are for practice and personal records, not an official qualification recognised by the Ministry (MIUR), and it is not a corso dattilografia ATA online gratis that earns ranking points. Check the current ranking rules and the provider's accreditation before paying for any course.
What this site does well is the practice itself. Is a corso dattilografia difficult (è difficile)? The esame finale of a corso dattilografia usually asks you to copy a text at a set speed with few errors, so the skill to build is steady, accurate touch typing. Use the free Italian lessons for the keys, then timed tests here as a simulazione before the real exam.
How to type fast (come scrivere veloce sulla tastiera del PC)
If you want to learn to type fast – imparare a scrivere veloce sulla tastiera – the method is the same on a PC or a laptop:
- Use all ten fingers. Rest on A S D F and J K L ò; each finger owns a column of keys. The on-screen keyboard colours every key by finger.
- Do short exercises every day. Dattilografia online esercizi work best in 10–15 minute blocks: a lesson, then two 1-minute tests.
- Play when you are tired of drills. If you prefer giochi, they turn dattilografia online into play. The typing games are a scrivere veloce con la tastiera gioco online – falling words, a space shooter and a car race – and all work with Italian words.
- For children, the dattilografia online per bambini option is the typing test for kids and the Balloon Pop game, with simple words and bigger text.
- Come scrivere veloce sulla tastiera del cellulare? On a phone typing fast is a different skill: two thumbs and autocorrect. This test works on phones too, but for lavoro, do your dattilografia online practice on a real keyboard, because that is the speed employers measure.
Tips to type Italian faster
- Learn the right little finger's keys. ò, à, ù, è and the apostrophe all sit under your right little finger. The Italian course on the typing lessons page drills them.
- Practise è vs é. Type è, caffè, perché, poiché until Shift + è feels natural.
- Count double letters. Say tut-to in your head to type the double t cleanly.
- Short and often. Three 1-minute tests a day beat one long session.