With this lesson you gain two of the five vowels, and that changes what you can type. Until now the drills were letter patterns; from here they start looking like language.
The new keys
- D — left middle finger, resting at home. No reach.
- E — left middle finger, one row up from
D. - I — right middle finger, one row up from
K.
Again the two reaches mirror each other. E and I sit in the same position relative to their home keys, one on each hand.
Why vowels change the drill
E is the most frequently used letter in English, and I is not far behind. Almost every word you will ever type contains at least one of them. That makes these two reaches the highest-value movements on the keyboard — they will fire thousands of times an hour once you are typing properly, so it is worth being fussy about them now.
Middle fingers are longer
Your middle finger is the longest on your hand, which means the reach up to E or I is shorter than it feels. Beginners frequently over-travel, hitting the number row or landing between keys. Make the movement smaller than instinct suggests.
Common mistakes
- Collapsing the hand to reach `E`. The left index should stay on or near
F while the middle finger goes up. - Confusing `I` and `K`. They share a finger, and under time pressure the finger goes to the wrong one. Slow down until the distinction is automatic.
- Typing `the` with the wrong finger. It is such a common word that an error here compounds fast.
T comes later — for now, focus on getting e right every time.
Building the habit
Aim for an unbroken rhythm rather than speed. If your accuracy is above 95%, you are ready for the next lesson; if it is not, repeat this one. There is no prize for arriving at the advanced track with a shaky foundation.