US, UK and international keyboard layouts compared

US English, UK English, and US-International are all QWERTY layouts. Every letter sits in the same place, so what you learn in touch typing works on all three. They differ in the symbols, in how you type accented letters, and in the keyboard hardware they are made for. The key assignments below come from Microsoft’s Windows layouts and from the Mac layout data that typando also uses.

Same letters, different symbols

The home row is identical on the US and UK layouts: A S D F for the left hand, J K L ; for the right. The home row: where every finger belongs shows which finger takes which key. The symbols are another story. On Windows, these are the main differences:

A few more details differ. The UK # key gives ~ with Shift, and the key left of 1 gives ¬ with Shift. On the US layout, the tilde is Shift+` instead. The US layout has no AltGr level at all.

Since the letters never move, everything you practice on them carries over. After a switch, you mostly need to relearn @, the quotation mark, and the currency symbols. If you use both layouts, practice these few keys on purpose. That takes far less time than learning touch typing itself, which is covered in How long does it take to learn touch typing?

ISO and ANSI keyboards

A layout is a setting in your operating system. The keyboard is hardware, and it comes in two common shapes.

UK keyboards use the ISO shape. Enter is tall and spans two rows, the # key sits to its left in the home row, and a short left Shift leaves room for an extra key next to Z, which types the backslash and the vertical bar. US keyboards use the ANSI shape: a wide left Shift, a wide Enter in the home row, and the backslash key above it.

The UK layout is made for the ISO shape. If you use it on an ANSI keyboard, the key above Enter types #, and you reach the backslash and the vertical bar with AltGr and that same key.

When you buy a keyboard, check both the shape and the labels. Once you type by touch, you rarely look at the letters, but symbols are different, especially at first. If the printed labels don’t match your layout, you will look for @ in the wrong place. Choose a keyboard with the shape and the labels of the layout you actually use.

US-International and its dead keys

US-International (“United States-International” in Windows) is a separate layout, not the default for US English. It keeps every character of the US layout that you type with or without Shift and adds two things.

First, five keys become dead keys: the apostrophe ', the quotation mark ", the grave accent `, the tilde ~, and the caret ^. A dead key types nothing by itself. It waits for the next key and combines with it:

• ' then E gives é (likewise á, í, ó, ú, ý), and ' then C gives ç
• " then U gives ü (likewise ä, ë, ï, ö, ÿ)
• ` then A gives à (likewise è, ì, ò, ù)
• ~ then N gives ñ (likewise ã and õ)
• ^ then O gives ô (likewise â, ê, î, û)

If you press the space bar after a dead key, you get the plain character.

Second, the right Alt key works as AltGr and adds more characters. AltGr+E gives é, AltGr+N gives ñ, AltGr+S gives ß, and AltGr+5 gives €. The pound sign is Shift+AltGr+4, and ä, ö, and ü sit on Q, P, and Y.

The catch is that apostrophes and quotation marks are everyday punctuation in English. Type o’clock without thinking, and the apostrophe merges with the c into ç: you get oçlock. A quotation mark typed directly before a vowel turns that vowel into an umlaut. The fix is a habit. When you want a plain apostrophe or quotation mark before a letter that can take an accent, press the space bar right after it.

If you write mostly English and need accents only now and then, the plain US layout spares you these surprises. If you often type names or words with accents, US-International is worth getting used to.

Mac keyboards

On a Mac, Option takes the role of AltGr, and Apple’s layouts differ from the Windows versions in a few places.

Apple’s U.S. layout has its dead keys on the Option level. Option+E followed by a letter adds an acute accent (é), Option+U an umlaut (ü), Option+I a circumflex (ê), and Option+N a tilde (ñ). The euro sign is Shift+Option+2, the pound sign Option+3.

Apple’s British layout puts @ on Shift+2 and the quotation mark on Shift+', as on the US layout. Shift+3 still gives £, so # moves to Option+3, and the euro sign is Option+2. If you type on a Windows PC at work and on a Mac at home, both with UK layouts, @ and the quotation mark are the keys that will catch you out.

Choosing your layout in typando

typando offers US English and UK English, both with a Mac version. When you start, it suggests a layout, and a short test with up to three key presses can detect yours. The switch “I use a Mac keyboard” loads the Mac variant. The on-screen keyboard then matches your keys, and the exercises only contain characters you can reach on the chosen layout.

US-International is not offered. Its letters and all characters with or without Shift match the US layout, so practice with US English. To keep the dead keys from getting in the way, switch your computer to the plain US layout while you practice. If you need a layout typando does not have, Learn touch typing for free: tools compared lists tools with many more.

Once your layout is set, the first lesson in the trainer starts on the home row with F, J, and the space bar, and the on-screen keyboard shows the layout you picked.