The whole board, in ten minutes

The board

The board has three parts.

• Two rows of consonants. Five columns on the left, five on the right, and the tall TH key in the middle.
• Vowels underneath. A bar of six keys: #, A, O, E, U and # again. The two # keys are the same key, so use whichever is closer.
• Left for the start, right for the end. The left hand writes the sounds at the start of a syllable. The right hand writes the sounds at the end. The vowel goes in the middle.

Every consonant column has two keys. The top key is the voiceless sound and the bottom key is the voiced one. Put a finger on your throat and say s, then z. The z buzzes. The s does not.

The last pair is the odd one out. R and L share a column because both sounds are made with the tip of the tongue, not because one is the voiced version of the other.

The right hand mirrors the left. The little finger is on the outside on both hands, and the index fingers sit nearest TH.

One finger, one place in the mouth

This is the idea that makes the board easy to learn. Each finger stands for one place in the mouth.

• Index finger: the tip of the tongue. T, d, and both keys together for n. R over L sits here too, nearest TH.
• Middle finger: the lips. P, b, and both keys for m.
• Ring finger: the back of the tongue. K, g, and both keys for ng.
• Little finger: the hiss. S, z, and both keys for sh.

The left thumb presses A and O. The right thumb presses E and U. While a chord is held, the keycaps change to show the sound. P and G both read W until you let go.

Take cat. It starts with k, has a short a, and ends with t. You press left K, A and right T, together, then lift. Cat starts with a c, but the sound is k, so you press K. Thorn follows the sound. The word list supplies the spelling.

Two fingers

Some sounds borrow a neighbouring key. The borrowing follows the mouth, so it is easier to remember than it looks.

F and V match in voicing: both top, or both bottom. W is the lip sound, so it keeps P and borrows G. H is the breath at the back, so it keeps K and borrows B. SH has used both little-finger keys, so ZH borrows G, the voiced key on the next finger.

Vowels

Four thumb keys write the vowels, alone or in groups.

• A as in cat. O as in lot. E as in bed. U as in strut.
• Both right-thumb keys: i, as in sit.
• Both left-thumb keys: ah, as in palm.
• A and E: ay, as in face. O and U: oh, as in goat. A and U: ow.
• A plus both right-thumb keys: ai, as in my. O plus both right-thumb keys: oy, as in boy.
• E plus both left-thumb keys: ee, as in be. U plus both left-thumb keys: oo, as in to.
• O and E: aw, as in for.
• All four thumb keys: uu, as in good.

Er, air and ear are not extra vowels. Write the vowel you already have, and add R. Her is e and R. There is ay and R, which keeps it apart from they.

Awkward endings

N uses both tongue keys, so a final t or d on the right has nowhere to go. It borrows the lip key and keeps its voicing: P stands in for t, and B stands in for d. Ten is left T, E and right n. Tent adds right P.

M uses both lip keys, so a final p or b borrows the back key. K stands in for p, and G stands in for b. Cam is left K, A and right m. Camp adds right K.

Where nothing needs borrowing, nothing is borrowed. Bank is n and then K, because K already means k.

TH

TH is the tall key in the middle. On its own it writes the word the. In a longer chord it starts the word when the left hand is empty, as in thing.

TH ends the word when the left hand has a real consonant, even if the right hand is down as well. Bath and with end in th. When the left hand is only R or L, TH stays at the front, so three starts with th.

Three words on one key

The commonest words in English get a single key each. Left P on its own writes and. TH on its own writes the. Right P on its own writes of. With any other key down, each of those is its sound again.

Punctuation, numbers and undo

The R and L keys double as punctuation when you press them on their own.

Any other key held with them writes the r and l sounds as usual.

Undo. Press both Z keys, and nothing else, to undo the last stroke. Press them again for the one before.

Numbers and the other marks: hold #

Numbers, and every mark apart from the four above, need #. Hold it down, then press the key you want. Without #, the same keys write their sounds.

Read each row from left to right, in the order the keys sit on the board. # with TH writes the currency sign for the phone’s language and region. A UK English phone shows £. # on its own writes #.

Words that sound alike

To, two and too sound the same, so they share one chord. The page writes the commonest one first. If you wanted another, press one key straight after the word: left # for the second spelling, right # for the third, and TH for the fourth. After any other word, those keys go back to their usual jobs.

If a word is not in the list at all, the page shows its sounds instead, so Dave might appear as dayv. Add it under My words with the spelling you want, and the app uses your version from then on.

In the app

Turn the phone sideways, open Write, and press the keys. A chord is written when the last finger lifts. One finger writes the keys under it. Several fingers write together, as soon as the last one lifts.

You can show the page as ordinary English or as sounds. English words is on to start with, so a finished chord writes cat, not kat. Sound spelling shows exactly what you pressed, which is handy when you are learning. The Angle keys button leans each column to follow your fingers.

Reference looks up a word and shows its chord. My words keeps the spellings you add.