FoundationsLesson 26 of 30 · Whole hands, whole words
Same-finger reaches
Two letters in a row on the same finger: ed, un, my, lo, ki, ce. The pairs that cause most errors at speed.
- New keys
- No new keys
- To pass
- Done when the check reaches 92% accuracy and 19 words a minute.
Lesson 26 is locked
It opens when you pass the check in lesson 25 (Alternating hands). Lessons open one at a time, in order.
Between the easy alternating words and the hard one-hand words is a specific kind of trouble: two consecutive letters that belong to the same finger. The finger has to press one key, travel to another, and press again, with nothing overlapping. The letters E and D are both on the left middle finger, so the pair ed, which ends thousands of English words, is one of these. So are un and nu, hu and um and my on the right index finger; lo and ol on the right ring finger; ki and ik on the right middle finger; ce and de on the left middle finger.
There is no trick to make these fast. They are simply slower than other pairs, and the goal is to make them accurate and even rather than to force speed through them. What goes wrong at speed is that the finger, hurrying, presses the second key before it has fully arrived and hits the neighbour instead. So on these drills, deliberately give the finger time to land.
Knowing which pairs are same-finger also helps you read ahead. When you see needed or under coming, you know that a small pause is built into the word, and you can spend it rather than fight it. Over a whole paragraph these tiny pauses are what separate a smooth typist from a jerky one at the same speed.
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