writing japanese letters on IOS

By hanif naufal h…, 28 March, 2015

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iOS and iPadOS

hi everyone, I'm using my Iphone 4S and it has a japanese keyboard in it.
I want to try to write a japanese letter, but not with the romaji one, I want to try it with kana.
how do I type a letter in it, for example: N, ki, ETC?

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By Hiroyuki Shinagawa on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

Hello,
You mean that you want to use Japanese kana keyboard, right?

After you add Japanese kana keyboard in Settings-General-Keyboard section, you type characters.
The style of keyboard is 12 key phone keypad.

I recommend the standard typing mode.

By the way, the layout of Japanese kana keyboard is different on iPhone and iPad.

By hanif naufal h… on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

what is the difference between the Iphone version and the Ipad version?
it seams to me that if for example I want to type the letter o, I have to hold the key on A until the alternate characters are shown.

By Hiroyuki Shinagawa on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

In reply to by hanif naufal h…

On iPhone, it appears 12 key phone keypad.

On iPad, it appears all hiragana, almost 50 characters.
If you like to use 12 key phone keypad on iPad, you need to split the keyboard.

By Hiroyuki Shinagawa on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

> it seams to me that if for example I want to type the letter o, I have to hold the key on A until the alternate characters are shown.

Sounds like it's the flick input on Japanese kana keyboard.

In standard typing mode, When you double tap and hold か "ka" (position of number 2), you can see:
き "ki" at 9 o'clock,
く "ku" at 12 o'clock,
け "ke" at 3 o'clock
こ "ko" at 6 o'clock.
か "ka" is the center.

In touch typing mode, you just hold it instead of double tap and hold.
In direct typing mode, it doesn't work.

The other writing way is as same as feature phone.
I recommend the split tap.

When you input ku, hold ka at the position of number 2, and tap 2 times by other finger.

By hanif naufal h… on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

I'm using an Iphone, so I use the 12-key keypad.
I switch my typing mode to standard typing, I select a letter, I hold the letter until the alternate character show up, but it appears it doesn't show all the letters.
but it only for surtain letter, for example ga, da, ja, and so on.
so, how do I type the characters like gyo, ga, ji, and other characters? I can type from A to N, but not the characters that I mentioned.

To type "ga gi gu ge go", you make it at two steps.
So, "ga za da ba" are composed of "ka sa ta ha" with voice symbol.

When you type "ga", you input "ka" at first.
Next, you type star key.
Then, "ka" change to "ga".

And, "pa pi pu pe po" are composed of "ha hi hu he ho" with semivoice symbol.
When you type "pa", you input "ha" at first.
Next, you type star key two times.
Then, "ha" change to "pa".

To type small letter "a i u e o ya yu yo", you can use same way.
When you type "small ya", you input "ya" at first.
Next, you type star key.
Then, "ya" change to "small ya".

By pound key, it appears some symbols: ", . ! ?".

By number 0, you type "wa wo nn" and plolonged soundmark.

By left key of number 7, you can change the charater mode, alphabet, numbers, and kana plane.

On that button,
when VoiceOver reads "sonota moji", you can input Japanese kana.
when VoiceOver reads "sonota suuji", you can input alphabet.
When VoiceOver reads "kana plane", you can input numbers.

The right key of number 3 is delete button.
VoiceOver reads "sakujo".

The right key of number 6 is space.
VoiceOver reads "kuuhaku".

The right key of number 9 is the button for new line.
VoiceOver reads "kaigyou".

It's a little bit complicated.

After you type any character or word, you need to double tap done button.
VoiceOver reads "kakutei".
It's the right key of number 7, same as "kaigyou", the button for new line.
In this way, you can input all letters in hiragana.

Before double tap kakutei button, some candidates appears on the place above the number 1-2-3.
You can check it by right and left flick, or up and down flick.
When you find the proper candidate, double tap on it.

Well, there are two other ways to show candidates of kanji.

The right key of number 6, it is the button for next candidate.
When you find the proper candidate, double tap on it.

After you type letters, you can do one finger up and down flick.
You can check candidates.
If it does not work well, you need to set the auto-text mode by rotor gesture.
Normally, it sets auto-text mode automatically.
When you find the proper candidate, double tap on it.

By hanif naufal h… on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

thanks for the explanation, hiroyuki shinagawa.
some more question: how do I write katakana letters? by default the keyboard is in hiragana, so how do I change it?
and also, how to type a small tsu, for letters that is doubled, for example, on the word"gakkou"?

By Hiroyuki Shinagawa on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

To input katakana, you need to pick up among the candidates

And, small tsu appears by the same way as small letter input.
At first, you type "tsu".
Next, you double tap star key once.
VoiceOver reads it just "tsu", no difference between small and nomal size.
We can not make sense by VoiceOver Japanese speech.
To make sure, we need to read it as a word.

So, to write gakkou,
For "ga", you input "ka", then you double tap star mark once.
For "small tsu", you input "tsu", then double tap star key once.
And, you input "ko" and "u".

By the way, to input small letter on Japanese romaji keyboard, you can type l before that character.
For "small tsu", you can type "ltu".
For "small a", you can type "la".

For the letter "tsu", it's not necessary to type "s".
I type just t and u.

Enjoy writing Japanese!

By Hiroyuki Shinagawa on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

In reply to by Hiroyuki Shinagawa

Maybe, I must've confused you in my message before.

To type "gakkou" in Japanese romaji keyboard, you can type it "gakkou".
That's nomal style.

The other way is, you can type "ga ltu ko u".
This is the way to input "small tsu" directly.

I wanted to explain that in last message.

By hanif naufal h… on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

thanks for all the explanations, now I'm enjoying writing japanese with the kana keyboard.
so, katakana letters appear only in candidates? can I type the katakana letters directly?

By hanif naufal h… on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

sorry to double post, I have some more confusion: how do I type a prolonged sound mark, for the katakana letters using the kana keyboard?
that key is spoken choompu, I think.

Yes, you are right.
In Japanese kana keyboard, Japanese speech engine reads it "chouonpu".

English speech engine reads it "prolonged sound mark".

It depends on speech engine.

The multilingual function of VoiceOver does not work sometimes.

By Hiroyuki Shinagawa on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

In reply to by hanif naufal h…

We have to pick up katakana from candidates.

VoiceOver speaks the type of letter and meaning of kanji.

When I want to input "gakkou" in katakana:

1. I type "gakkou".

2. On the area of keypad, I flick up or down by one finger.
I can find candidates and hear the detail of it.

For example, "manabu gakushuuno gaku, gakkouno kou".
These are kanji, two letters.
It speaks the meaning of each kanji.

"katakanano gakkou".
All letters are katakana.

3. I double tap by one finger when it speaks "katakanano gakkou".

By Hiroyuki Shinagawa on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

I have to mention this.

When you want to input "small tsu",
at first, you type "tsu".
Next, you tap star key once.
Now "small tsu" appears on the screen, but VoiceOver speak nothing.
It's weird.

By the way,
After you type "tsu", tap star key two times.
It appears "du", "tsu" with voice sound synbol.
"da di du de do".

After you type "tsu", tap star key two three times.
It appears normal size of "tsu".

It's a toggle action.

By hanif naufal h… on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 01:42

hi, thanks for all your replies, now I can type japanese letters without any problems at all.