Malayalam typing test
Type a Malayalam passage in Unicode and set your speed beside the 25 words a minute of KGTE's Malayalam Lower typewriting paper, the certificate Kerala PSC asks of its typists. No Malayalam keyboard? Type on your usual keys: this page turns each one into its Inscript letter.
Type on your usual keys: each one types its Inscript letter, and Shift types the second letter on the key. Press Space after each word. A word with a mistake turns red; Backspace fixes it while you are still in it.
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How this test counts
The test counts 5 key depressions as one word, as KGTE counts five characters or spaces as a word, so 25 words a minute is 125 key depressions a minute. Each letter, vowel sign, chillu letter, anusvara (ം), virama (്) and space is one key depression, as Inscript types each with one key; Shift is not counted. KGTE takes marks off for every five character mistakes and counts wrong spacing too; this page checks whole words and sets your net speed, the words typed right, beside the 25. Read it as practice, not as an exam result.
Net speed counts only the words you typed exactly right, with the space after each. Gross speed counts everything you typed. A word is checked when you press Space after it, so a word you are still typing when the time ends does not count. A word you leave out or add counts as one mistake, and the words after it still count.
Typing Malayalam on an English keyboard
Inscript puts the vowels under the left hand and the consonants under the right, in the same places as for Hindi. The home row has ോ േ ് ി ു on the left and പ ര ക ത ച ട on the right. Shift gives the second letter on a key: the full vowel instead of its sign (ാ becomes ആ) and the aspirated consonant (ക becomes ഖ).
Malayalam's own letters have keys too. Each chillu letter is one key: ർ is the ] key, ൻ is Shift + V, ൽ is Shift + full stop, ൾ is Shift + 8 and ൺ is Shift + X. ഴ is Shift + B, റ is Shift + J, and the short o sign ൊ is the ` key (Shift + ` gives ഒ). To join two consonants, type the first, then the virama ് (the D key), then the second: ക, ്, ക gives ക്ക.
To type Inscript everywhere, add Malayalam in Windows: Start > Settings > Time & language > Language & region > Add a language. Its keyboard, Malayalam, has the same keys as this page. Hold the Windows key and press Space to switch between your keyboards.
Malayalam typing for government jobs
Kerala PSC asks for the KGTE Lower Grade certificate in Malayalam typewriting for its typist posts: its notification for Lower Division Typist in various departments (category no. 631/2025) lists it beside the KGTE English Lower certificate with computer word processing. In KGTE's Malayalam Lower speed paper you type a printed passage of 1,250 characters on a computer in 10 minutes, 25 words a minute at five characters a word, and 40 marks of 100 pass. The Higher grade gives 1,750 characters, 35 words a minute.
The passages here are Unicode Malayalam, the text Windows' Malayalam keyboard and phone keyboards type, with each chillu written as one letter (ൻ); a keyboard that types the older form still counts. KGTE asks for two spaces after a full stop, a question mark, an exclamation mark and a colon, and counts wrong spacing as a mistake: this page checks words only, so practise the spacing yourself. The page opens on 10 minutes, the length of KGTE's speed paper, and you can pick 1 to 15.
For the English part, take the typing test; for Hindi, the Hindi typing test; to learn which finger presses each key, start the typing lessons; and for the speeds other government jobs ask for, see typing speed for jobs.
Sources: Kerala Government Technical Examinations (KGTE), commerce group syllabus, revision 2022 (Malayalam Lower and Higher speed papers); Kerala Public Service Commission, notification for Lower Division Typist, category no. 631/2025; Microsoft Learn, Malayalam keyboard; Microsoft Support, language and keyboard settings in Windows. The passages are our own.