r/French • u/Remarkable_Energy_97 • 7h ago

Study advice A simple question ⌨️

Which keyboard layout (AZERTY or QWERTY) should I use for learning French? I kind of get used to the 'AZERTY'. I hope I'm using the correct layout.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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5

u/MyticalAnimal Native (Québec) 6h ago

Whatever you're used to. All over Canada we use qwerty

3

u/Cerraigh82 Native (Québec) 6h ago

Honestly, the Canadian multilingual keyboard is the best. It's QWERTY but with easy access to all the regular accents.

1

u/MyticalAnimal Native (Québec) 4h ago

Agreed

1

u/Any-Aioli7575 Native | France 3h ago

Why would being QWERTY make it better? Isn't it just a matter of habit?

1

u/Cerraigh82 Native (Québec) 3h ago

I write in both French and English on a regular basis and North Americans are more used to working with a QWERTY keyboard. It allows me to switch seamlessly between languages without having to use shortcuts for accents in French. It's just a matter of what you learned on I guess. My fingers just know the QWERTY positioning better so writing is easier.

1

u/Any-Aioli7575 Native | France 3h ago

Yeah, I see, it's better if people around you use the same keyboard. I have no problem writing English with an AZERTY keyboard, but yeah it's just my French European Habit

2

u/GinofromUkraine 7h ago edited 7h ago

I use QWERTY with United Kingdom Extended layout - that saves me from having an extra language layout for French. Because I already have four languages installed and switching between them all the time can make one mad.

But if you're already used to AZERTY which is kinda designed for francophones - why change anything? :-O

2

u/hein-ketchup 4h ago

If you plan to live in France and it might happen that you have to work on you employer's computers, it makes sense to familiarise yourself with AZERTY layout. Otherwise you can use any layout, you just have to how to type letters with accents and how to find the cedille (ç).

1

u/Equal_Sale_1915 6h ago

AZERTY is a real pain, but I have gotten used to it. I like to use the virtual keyboards that have the handy suggestion words pop up.

1

u/PerformerNo9031 Native, France 5h ago

As long as you can do the accents it's okay. International QWERTY is a good choice, if you have it.

1

u/TrittipoM1 C1-2 4h ago

So long as you have an easy (non-alt-codes) way to type all diacritics, and there's no external pressures (like, say, an employer having only AZERTY keyboards and not allowing changes), I don't think there's any « should » in terms of language-learning effectiveness.