If you have not learned Kanji yet, please come back to this section after Lesson 5.

1: Converting hiragana into kanji-kana string

When the Japanese IME is set to Romaji-to-Hiragana mode, you'll see the あ symbol in your taskbar. Typing in Romaji while this mode is active will result in the following:

1. Typing the sequence "t a n a k a d e s u ." without spaces will automatically convert it into the underlined Hiragana string たなかです。
2. Press the Spacebar to convert the sequence into its Kanji-Kana combination: 田中です。
3. Press the Enter Key to confirm the conversion; this clears the underline and completes the input.

This is a basic example of Kana-to-Kanji conversion. If the Romaji is misspelled, the dictionary lookup will fail, resulting in an incorrect or nonsensical string of characters. Here is another example of how the process works.

1. Your Romaji input "k u r a s u n i i t t a ." without spaces will be converted to a Hiragana string: くらすにいった。
2. Press the Spacebar to convert the input into a Kanji-Kana combination: クラスに行った。
3. Press the Enter Key to complete the input.

2: Resolving Ambiguities

Typing the sequence "k u r a s u n i h a i t t a ." without spaces generates several possible Kanji-Kana variations. The three most common results are shown below. The system selects the primary candidate based on the surrounding context and your personal typing history, as the IME prioritizes frequently used words.

In the example below, small Hiragana characters appear above the Kanji. Known as 'ruby characters' (or Hurigana), these serve as phonetic guides to assist with reading. While we have included them in this section for clarity, please note that ruby text is not typically displayed in standard digital environments.

Three possible kanji-kana conversion options of the same hiragana sequence

クラスに　は　いった All three examples above are possible conversion results having the same romaji input of "k u r a s u n i h a i t t a."

If the computer gives you Choice #1 (クラスには 言った。) but you want Choice #2 (クラスには行った。), do the following.

1.

Initially, the first segment クラスには is bold-underlined. The bold-underlined segment can be changed. Conversion text showing the boundary between

クラスに は いった
2. Press the right-arrow key (right-arrow) and move the bold-underline to the next segment. Now 言った can be changed. Conversion text showing the boundary between Kurasu ni ha and itta. Itta-part is bold-underlined.
3.

Now press the Spacebar. The computer will show you other choices. If there are other conversion choices, they will also be displayed. If you press the Spacebar again, the second choice will be highlighted, and so on. You can keep pressing the Spacebar to reach the desired choice, or directly enter the number for the choice you want. 9 Kanji-Kana conversion choices are shown for itta.
4. If everything looks good, press the Enter Key to finalize your choice. Converted text after selecting the second choice. Itta part is bold-underlned.→Finalized conversion showing Kurasu ni ha itta.

3: Changing Word Segmentations

5. While sentences #1 and #2 above are segmented as くらすには and いった, sentence #3 is segmented as くらすに and はいった. To get the third conversion choice 入った, you must shift the segmentation boundary one character to the left (after に). Two separate word segmentations showing kurahsu, knee, huh, and, itta and kurahsu, knee, and, huh, itta.
6. To move the segmentation boundary to the left, hold down the Shift key and press the left arrow key. The blue highlight appears to show the changed segmentation. The text conversion with the boundary between Kurahsu, knee, huh and itta.
7. Press the Spacebar and choose the second choice クラスに. (Or, type "2" to choose it. Do not hit the Enter Key yet.) 7 possible choices of kanji-kana strings for kurahsu-knee.
8. After choosing クラスに, the bold-underline remains below クラスに. Now press the right arrow key to move the bold-underline to the next segment は. Kurahsu-knee is bold-underlined. Ha is bold-underlined.
9. You need to combine は and いった into a single segment はいった. Hold the Ｓｈｉｆｔ key and press the right arrow key three times.
1:After pressing the right arrow key once, the first two characters Hi!, are highlighted. 2:After pressing the right arrow key the second time, three characters Hi!, and small tsu are highlighted. 3:After pressing the right arrow key the third time, four characters Hi!, small tsu, and tah, are highlighted.
When the entire segment はいった is selected, it can be converted into Kanji-Kana string as one word.
10. Press the Spacebar to choose the second choice 入った. IME is showing four conversion choices for Huh! ittah to choose from.
11. Press the Enter Key to confirm your choice. Finalized text input (Kurahsu, knee, Huh! ittah.)

Generally, providing longer input improves conversion accuracy as the IME has more context to work with. However, increased length also introduces more potential for segmentation errors. With practice, you will discover the 'sweet spot'—the ideal input length that balances context with ease of correction.
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