katakana logo Typing Japanese 2 (Kanji-Kana Mix)
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If you have not learned kanji yet, come back to this section after Lesson 5.
1  Converting hiragana into kanji-kana mix  

 

If you don't remember the romaji combinations that will result in desired hiragana or katakana sequences, please return to the previous topic (Typing Japanese).

 

When you type in romaji, what you typed initially appears in underlined hiragana. To apply dictionary lookup and convert this hiragana into kanji-hiragana-katakana mix, hit Spacebar and Enter Key.bullet

tanakadesu.たなかです。Spacebar田中です。Enter Key → 田中です。
kurasuniitta.くらすにいった。Spacebarクラスに行った。 Enter Key → クラスに行った。

bullet If the input phrases are misspelled, dictionary lookup will result in meaningless string of characters.

 

2  Resolving Ambiguities  

 

If you type "kurasunihaitta.", you will get many possible sentences. Three most common ones are shown below. Which one the computer gives you as your first choice depends on the history of what you have typed up to that point. (The computer keeps frequently used words at the top of your choice.)


j-input-01
All three verbs above (()った, ()った and (はい)った) are the plain forms of ()いました, ()きました and (はい)りました, respectively. We will learn the plain past forms later.

 

If the computer gives you Sentence #1 (クラスには()った。) and you want Sentence #2 (クラスには()った。) instead, do the following.

1.

Initially, the first segment クラスには is bold-underlined. The bold-underlined segment can be changed.
j-input-02

2. Hit the right-arrow key (right-arrow) and move the bold-underline to the next segment. Now 言った can be changed.
j-input-03
3. Hit the Spacebar. The computer will show you other choices. If definitions for homonyms are available, they will also be displayed. Type "2" or move the cursor down to the second choice. If there are no other segments that need to be changed, hit Enter Key. (Otherwise, type "2" and move the bold-underlined segment for further changes.)
j-input-04
4. Hit Enter Key to finalize your choice.
j-input-05j-input-06

 

3  Changing Word Segmentations  

 

5. Sentences #1 and #2 shown earlier are segmented as くらすには + いった. Sentence #3 is segmented as くらすに + はいった instead. We need to move the current word segmentation position (after ) one letter to the left (after ).
j-input-08
6. To move the word segmentation to the left, hold the Shift key and hit the left arrow (left arrow). The blue highlight appears to show the changed word segmentation. (The example below follows Step 2 above.)
j-input-09
7. Hit Spacebar and choose the word クラスに. (Type "2" to choose. Do not hit Enter Key.)
j-input-10
8. After choosing the word, if the bold-underline remains below クラスに, hit the right arrow key (right arrow) to move the bold-underline below .
j
j-input
9. We need to combine the last words into a single word はいった. Hold the Shift key and hit the right arrow (right arrow) three times.
j-input-12once
j-input-13twice
j-input-14 three times
10. Hit Spacebar to choose the word 入った.
j-input-15
11. Hit Enter Key to finalize it.
j-input-16