Lessons · English · lesson 5 of 10

Capital letters and the Shift keys

A capital letter is typed by holding down a Shift key while you press the letter. There are two Shift keys, one at each end of the bottom row, and there is a rule about which one to use.

Use the opposite hand

Hold Shift with the little finger of the hand that is not typing the letter.

• For a capital on the left side of the keyboard, such as A, S, T or B, hold the right Shift with the right little finger and type the letter with the left hand.
• For a capital on the right side, such as J, P, M or I, hold the left Shift with the left little finger and type the letter with the right hand.

The reason is simple. If the same hand holds Shift and types the letter, the hand has to twist and leaves the home row. With opposite hands, the typing hand stays exactly where it was.

The three steps

1. Little finger goes down to Shift and holds it.
2. The other hand taps the letter.
3. Release Shift and bring the little finger back to A or ;.

Beginners often release Shift too early, which gives a small letter, or too late, which gives two capitals at the start of a word, such as THe. Say "down, tap, up" in your head until the timing is natural.

Caps Lock

Caps Lock makes every letter a capital until you press it again. Use it only when you have a whole line of capitals to type, for example a heading or a form that asks for block letters. For one capital letter, Shift is quicker. If your typing suddenly comes out in capitals, you have touched Caps Lock by accident. Press it once to turn it off.

Shift also gives the upper symbol

On keys that show two symbols, Shift gives the upper one. The key with / gives ? with Shift. The key with ; gives :. The key with ' gives ". The same opposite hand rule applies: these keys are on the right, so hold the left Shift.

Drill

Sentences start with a capital

From now on, type every sentence the way it is written: a capital at the start, a full stop at the end, and one space before the next sentence. Names of people, places, days and months also take a capital. This is where typing practice becomes useful for real work, because letters, applications and emails are judged on these small things.

When names and sentences come out with the right capitals and no double capitals, go on to the number row.

This is an independent practice site. It is not connected with any examination body, keyboard maker or software company. A typing speed measured here is for your own practice. It is not a certificate, and an examination may measure speed in its own way.