AZERTY Typing Guide

Short answer: AZERTY is the standard keyboard layout in France and Belgium, and Klavaro includes AZERTY among its built-in layouts, so French-speaking typists can learn touch typing on the layout they actually use — including typing accented characters such as é, è, à and ç directly. This guide, written in English for AZERTY users who also meet QWERTY at work or online, covers choosing AZERTY in Klavaro, the French and Belgian variant difference, practising French text, and avoiding layout-mismatch confusion when you switch environments.

AZERTY at a glance

If you learned to type in France or Belgium, AZERTY is simply “the keyboard”: the top letter row begins A-Z-E-R-T-Y, the digit row behaves differently from QWERTY, and several punctuation keys live in unfamiliar places for anyone trained elsewhere. Crucially for French, the accented characters that French spelling needs constantly — é, è, à, ç and friends — are directly available on the layout rather than buried behind key combinations. For typing correct French, that directness is not a luxury; accents change meaning and mark properly written text.

This matters beyond France itself. Klavaro’s French-speaking audience includes francophone Africa as well as France and Belgium, and wherever French is the language of school and administration, AZERTY is the layout on the desk. A typing tutor that forced those users onto QWERTY would be teaching them someone else’s keyboard. Klavaro does not: AZERTY is a first-class built-in layout.

French and Belgian AZERTY are not identical

One detail catches people out: the French and Belgian AZERTY variants differ in details. The overall arrangement is the same family — same top row, same general logic — but the placement of certain symbols and some details of the layout are not the same between the two national variants. If you buy a keyboard in Brussels and sit down at one in Paris, most typing feels familiar and a few characters are simply not where your fingers expect.

The practical consequence for practice is simple: in Klavaro, pick the AZERTY variant that matches the keyboard and country you actually type in. Practising diligently on the wrong variant builds confident muscle memory for details that will betray you on your real machine. If you are unsure which variant your keyboard follows, type the symbol keys on your physical keyboard and compare before you start the course.

Practising on AZERTY in Klavaro

• Select AZERTY in Klavaro. The layout is chosen inside the program, independently of your operating system layout — make sure the two agree, or characters will come out wrong.
• Work through the Basic Course on AZERTY. Even if you already type, a structured pass fixes the self-taught habits and symbol keys that informal typing leaves ragged.
• Practise French text deliberately. Use Klavaro’s exercises and imported text to drill passages rich in accented characters, so é, è, à and ç become automatic rather than interruptions.
• Use Adaptability for weak keys. For most AZERTY typists the weak spots are symbols and the digit row; Adaptability weights practice towards exactly the keys you miss.

The general method — posture, home row, accuracy before speed — is the same on every layout, and our guide to learning touch typing covers it in full.

Living between AZERTY and QWERTY

Many AZERTY users lead a double keyboard life: AZERTY at home and school, QWERTY on a work laptop, a shared machine, or in programming contexts where QWERTY is common. Switching between layouts is a learnable skill, but expect interference at first — the A and Q positions, the M position and the digit row are frequent traps. Two habits help. First, give yourself a minute of warm-up typing whenever you change environments, so your fingers recalibrate before real work. Second, never judge your layout by the printed keycaps alone when borrowing a machine; check what the system is actually set to.

If characters come out wrong in Klavaro — you press one key and get another letter — the cause is almost always a mismatch between the layout selected in Klavaro and your operating system layout. Our guide to the Klavaro wrong layout problem walks through the symptoms and the fix. It is a two-minute settings check, not a fault with the program.

A practical weekly rhythm looks like this. Spend the first week inside the Basic Course on AZERTY, slowly, with accuracy as the only goal. In the following weeks, finish the course and add Adaptability sessions aimed at your personal weak keys — for many AZERTY typists these are the digit row and the less-used symbols. Then shift towards Velocity and Fluidness using French text, so the accented characters are drilled inside real words rather than as isolated exercises. Check your progress charts weekly, and if accuracy falls as speed rises, return to Adaptability for a day or two instead of forcing the pace. Twenty focused minutes a day on this pattern will, within a couple of months, make AZERTY feel less like a layout you are studying and more like simply how typing works.

Should AZERTY users switch to QWERTY instead?

Occasionally French speakers ask whether they should abandon AZERTY for QWERTY “because the internet uses QWERTY”. For typing French, the answer is generally no: AZERTY gives you the accented characters directly, it is the layout of your schools, offices and physical keyboards, and relearning buys you little unless your daily work is overwhelmingly on QWERTY machines. Learn the layout of your real life properly — that is what Klavaro’s AZERTY support is for. Klavaro is free from our download page, and its interface is available in many languages, French included.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Klavaro support AZERTY keyboards?

Yes. AZERTY is one of Klavaro’s built-in layouts, alongside QWERTY variants, Dvorak, Colemak (US), QWERTZ and others. You select it inside the program — the layout is chosen independently of your operating system — and the courses then train you on AZERTY key positions, including accented characters.

Are French and Belgian AZERTY layouts the same?

Not exactly. They belong to the same AZERTY family and feel broadly identical, but the French and Belgian variants differ in details, including the placement of certain symbols. Practise on the variant that matches your own keyboard and country, so the muscle memory you build is the one you need.

Why do I get wrong characters in Klavaro on my AZERTY keyboard?

Almost always a layout mismatch: the layout selected inside Klavaro and your operating system layout disagree, so the program interprets your keystrokes differently. Set both to the same AZERTY variant and the problem disappears. This is a settings issue, not a bug in Klavaro.

Can AZERTY typists practise French accented characters in Klavaro?

Yes. AZERTY places characters such as é, è, à and ç directly on the layout, and practising on AZERTY in Klavaro — especially with French text in the later modules and Adaptability drills for weak keys — makes accented characters automatic instead of interruptions.