Icelandic typing test
Sixty seconds against the 226 most common words in Íslenska, accents and all. WPM, accuracy, a speed graph and the exact keys that cost you time.
Tab restarts Esc leaves the test results save to this browser only
The Icelandic word list, measured
Every figure there is counted from the file this test types, not estimated. Words are drawn from the common pool at random and never repeat back to back, so no two runs are the same and there is nothing to memorise.
Characters and keyboards
10 characters in the file sit outside the plain Latin alphabet: á æ é í ð ó ö ú ý þ. They turn up in 44% of the common words, so you meet them constantly rather than occasionally. A Icelandic layout puts each on its own key; on a plain US board you would need an international or dead-key layout, and hunting for them costs real WPM.
What your score actually represents
Icelandic words run 0.5 characters longer than English on average. That does not make your WPM lower, because WPM counts every five characters as one word rather than counting actual words. What it changes is how much text you produce: at 60 WPM you are typing about 55 real Icelandic words a minute, against roughly 60 in English.
The formulas never change with the language: speed is correct characters divided by five per minute, accuracy is correct keystrokes over total keystrokes, and consistency comes from the variation in your per-second speed. All of them are written out on the typing metrics page.
Punctuation in Icelandic
Switch the punctuation modifier on and sentences get a capital, commas and quotes inside them, and a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark at the end. The apostrophe possessive stays off: it is an English habit and would be wrong in Icelandic.
Getting a fair reading
- Do one warmup run. Cold starts read five to ten WPM low in any language.
- Use the layout you actually type Icelandic on day to day, not a borrowed machine.
- Hold 96% accuracy before you push for speed. Corrections cost more time than they save.
- The control bar switches to 15, 30 or 120 seconds and turns punctuation and numbers on.
If your speed is stuck, the bottleneck is usually finger placement rather than effort. The free touch typing course rebuilds it from the home row, and your runs here feed the trend on your stats page.
Other tests and languages
- Estonian typing test The same test in Eesti
- Latvian typing test The same test in Latviešu
- All languages Every language the test supports, 64 in all
- All typing tests Every duration, mode and layout
- Free typing certificate Download your result, no signup
- What is a good WPM? Where your number sits against real data
Questions people ask
Can I take a typing test in Icelandic?
Yes. This page loads the Icelandic word list before the test starts, so every word you type is a real Íslenska word, not translated English. The common pool holds 226 of the most frequent words and the full file holds 529, averaging 4.5 characters each. The test runs 60 seconds by default and you can change the length in the control bar.
Do I need a Icelandic keyboard layout?
Not strictly, but it helps. 44% of the common words use one of these characters: á æ é í ð ó ö ú ý þ. A Icelandic layout puts them on single keys; on a plain US board you would need an international layout, and hunting for accents will cost you speed.
Is a Icelandic WPM score comparable to an English one?
The maths is identical: WPM is correct characters divided by five, per minute, and accuracy is correct keystrokes over total keystrokes. So the number means the same thing here as on the English test. The typing is not identical though. Icelandic words run 0.5 characters longer, so the same WPM represents fewer actual words. Reaching for characters your layout buries, or a script where one glyph takes several keystrokes, pulls a score down without your technique changing. Compare yourself in Icelandic against yourself in Icelandic.
What is the longest word in the Icelandic test?
fjölskylda at 10 characters, the longest in the common pool. The average is 4.5, so most of what you type is far shorter. Long words are worth noticing because a single mistake inside one costs the whole word in the WPM count.
Is this Icelandic typing test free?
Yes. It is free, there is no account, and nothing is emailed to you. Results are written to your own browser storage, so your history lives on your device and you can review it on your typing stats page. If you need a document to show someone, take a run on the typing certificate page and download it there.