Romaji Input Chart: How to Type Small Kana, っ, ん and Voiced Sounds

Most sounds are consonant + vowel. The か row is the consonant k plus a, i, u, e, o: ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. Only the あ row is bare vowels.

The particles は, へ and を are typed as written, not as pronounced: ha, he and wo. “わたしは” is wa-ta-si-ha, and “ほんを” is ho-nn-wo. を is wo only; typing o gives お.

Voiced sounds (が ざ だ ば) and the semi-voiced ぱ are also consonant + vowel. Swap the consonant: k becomes g, s becomes z, and so on.

A caution about ぢ and づ: Typing Musou also accepts ji for ぢ and zu for づ. In ordinary Japanese input, though, ji gives じ and zu gives ず. To get ぢ or づ, use di or du (the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Q&A, Q46, likewise says that ぢ and づ are called up with di and du in romaji input).

Sounds with a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ are called yōon. The basic form is consonant + y + vowel: き + ゃ is kya. Only the し, ち and じ rows have other spellings too.

Any of them. No spelling is “right” or “wrong.” Here are the kana with several spellings, with keystroke counts.

Three ways to choose: use the spelling with fewer keystrokes, match the spelling shown on screen, or type the spelling you learned at school. Judging does not change with your choice. How this relates to school “Hepburn” and “Kunrei” is covered in Hepburn vs. Kunrei for Typing.

Other spellings also work: ca, cu and co for か, く and こ (qu also gives く), and ce for せ. You do not need to memorize them.

Double the first letter of the next kana's consonant. きって is kitte (double the t), がっこう is gakkou, ざっし is zassi (or zasshi), いっぱい is ippai.

When the consonant is two letters (sh, ch), double only the first letter: まっちゃ is maccha (or mattya). Writing matcha, with a t before ch, works in some input software (Mozc's table has a tch row), but Typing Musou does not accept it.

You cannot double a vowel or n. To type っ by itself (for example in “あっ”), use xtu or ltu (xtsu and ltsu also work). “あっ” is a-xtu.

When in doubt, use nn. It gives ん anywhere. xn also works. Within a word, a single n is enough only when the next kana starts with a consonant.

Some input software also accepts n' (with an apostrophe) for ん; Mozc's table has it. Typing Musou does not accept n'. Use nn or xn.

In Typing Musou, if you type a single n for the ん at the very end of a prompt and go straight on to the first key of the next prompt, the game still counts it as ん. I have not checked how other input software treats this. Remembering nn at the end of a word as well is the safe choice.

Long vowels written in hiragana are typed with the vowel kana as spelled: おおきい is ookii, とおい is tooi, ひこうき is hikouki, えいが is eiga. Type おう, おお and えい exactly as written.

The katakana long-vowel mark ー is the “-” (hyphen) key. It sits to the right of the 0 key, in the same place on JIS and US layouts. コーヒー is ko-hi-.

Sounds that appear in loanwords have their own spellings. These pass in both Mozc and Typing Musou.

To type a small kana by itself, put x or l in front. Either works the same. If unsure, stick with x.

No. The romaji taught at school is a set of rules for writing Japanese in Latin letters, which is separate from the spellings you type on a keyboard. For example, the particle を is written o in romaji, but typed wo on a keyboard.

In December 2025 the government revised its official romaji spelling guide. The Agency for Cultural Affairs says the notice does not request any change to romaji input. For details, see Hepburn vs. Kunrei for Typing.

You do not need to memorize the whole chart. Start with the rule (consonant + vowel), the あ row and the rows you use most, and look up the sounds you stumble on. The Home Position Dojo in Typing Musou (150 stages in 15 chapters) practices the sounds in this chart in the order below.

Which sounds trip people up most is covered in Error-Prone Characters Ranking. For finger placement, see the Home Row Position Diagram.

• Q. Do I switch to English mode for romaji input?

  No. Romaji input works with your Japanese input turned on: you press alphabet keys and they become hiragana. You switch to half-width alphanumeric only when you want letters to stay letters. On Windows, the Half-width/Full-width key toggles Japanese input on and off (Microsoft's documentation). Typing Musou does no conversion; you simply press the keys for the romaji shown on screen.

• Q. Do I have to memorize all of the romaji?

  No. If you can type the consonant + vowel rule, the あ row and the rows you use most, you will learn the rest as you type. Look up only the sounds you stumble on in the tables here.

• Q. Can I type ん with n' (an apostrophe)?

  In some input software, yes. Typing Musou does not accept n'. Use nn or xn.

• Q. Which kana are the easiest to get wrong?

  Error-Prone Characters Ranking ranks them using Typing Musou's records.

• Q. Can I play Typing Musou with kana input?

  No. Typing Musou supports romaji input only; there is no kana input mode. The differences between the two methods are covered in Kana Input vs. Romaji Input.

The spellings in the tables were checked against the sources below and Typing Musou's judging (checked on October 18, 2026).

1. Mozc (the open-source engine behind Google Japanese Input), romaji conversion table romanji-hiragana.tsv — Not an official document. Used to check that each spelling in the tables gives the same kana. I could not find an official conversion table for Microsoft IME
2. Microsoft Support, “Microsoft Japanese IME” — The Half-width/Full-width key toggles Japanese input on and off (FAQ). The page is in Japanese
3. Agency for Cultural Affairs, Q&A on “Rōmaji no Tsuzurikata” (Cabinet Notice No. 4 of Reiwa 7), February 2026 — Q46 (typing ぢ, づ and を), Q52 (effect on romaji input). In Japanese
4. Typing Musou's judging rules and the Home Position Dojo's chapter structure (as of October 18, 2026) — Which spellings the game accepts, and how the chart maps to dojo chapters

Romaji input is consonant + vowel. The spots that cause hesitation are kana with several spellings, small kana, っ and ん. Any spelling counts as correct, as in し = si / shi. Look things up here when you get stuck.

It is fine to type with the chart open. Typing in the Home Position Dojo will naturally cut how often you need to look.