Writing has you write kana, kanji and words by hand in a writing box, stroke by stroke, with a finger, a pen or a mouse. Every stroke is checked as you go. Writing is free for everyone.
Help fades as you learn
- New and Novice: trace over the faint character. The next stroke is highlighted, with an arrow where it starts.
- Learning: only the start arrow of each stroke.
- Familiar: a start arrow on each character's first stroke only. A character a little off centre or another size is judged on its shape.
- Proficient and up: just the grid. A character a little off centre or another size is judged on its shape.
- Help follows your Writing mastery of the item, and no setting changes it. After an Again, the item's next writing card in the same session gives one step more help.
- New and Novice cards rate Hard at best, since the shape is shown. You get 5 tries per stroke there, and 3 after.
- The stroke counter shows the total, as in "Stroke 3 of 8", only at New and Novice, while you trace. From Learning it shows "Stroke 3".
Undo and Hint
- The prompt sits above the boxes, with Undo and Hint centred under them.
- Undo takes back the last stroke. It never uses a try.
- Hint shows a little more of the stroke you are writing, then draws it.
- Any Hint holds the card to Hard.
- The dots over the box are your tries. Use up a stroke's dots and the card ends as a miss.
- Fewer misses rate higher: none is the top rating, 1 is Good, 2 or more are Hard. A Hint rates Hard at best. Replays never change Writing. On a sound-only card, many replays count Listening as Hard.
- On a miss the red panel offers Try again for practice (the card still counts as missed) and Continue.
- The panel shows the answer with its reading and meaning. Tap a word to open its details; the speaker plays it.
What is checked
- Stroke order, direction and shape. シ and ツ look alike, and their strokes run in different directions, so direction always counts.
- Hooks, flicks and sweeps at the end of a stroke only warn. They vary from hand to hand and pen to pen, so they never cost a try.
- A wrong stroke shows in red with a mark and a shake. A screen reader says what to fix.
- A good stroke ticks and a wrong one beeps. In the app each also gives a light tap, which you can turn off with Haptics in Preferences.
Writing words
- A word is written the way it is usually spelled, one box per character. A word usually written in kana is written in kana.
- The boxes scroll along with you as you write.
- Under Handwriting in the exercise types on the Practice tab, shown while it is on, Kana, Kanji and Words choose what you write. At least one stays on. A kind turned off during a session leaves from the next card; one turned on joins from your next session.
- Words up to leaves longer words out of writing(it starts at 4 characters). They still come up for every other skill.
- Write what you hear sits under Handwriting too. It is on by default; turned off, no card plays only the sound.
- Standard and Full write kana and kanji. Turn on Words in Custom.
When writing comes up
- Once you recognise the item: a kana's Reading, or a kanji's or word's Vocabulary, reaches Novice. Where your goals have no Reading or Vocabulary, writing comes up without waiting.
- A new item's first write may come later in the session that introduces it, after its Reading or Vocabulary card.
- Never just after a card that shows the same characters, so you write from memory.
What the card shows
- The card gives the reading or plays the sound, never the answer. A kana card shows its romaji with the sound at first, and the other script once you can read it. A word shows its meaning with its reading, romaji or sound.
- While word audio is on, a kana or word card that shows text has a speaker beside it: tap it as often as you like. っ, ッ and small kana have no sound.
- Some cards play only the sound: kana from Learning, words from Familiar. They have a small player: replays and speed work as in Listening cards.
- A sound-only word keeps its meaning covered. Tap the eye to see it; that counts the card for Writing only, not Listening.
- Once you have played the sound, a sound-only card counts for Listening too. A correct write counts Listening as Good, or Hard after many replays; a missed write leaves Listening as it was.
- Stroke style on the Display tab of study settings draws the boxes in Brush or Line. It is one choice with the stroke order viewer and Write it: change it in one place and the others follow. A change shows from your next write.
To try it on any kana or kanji, choose Write it under the stroke order viewer on its character page. Its settings gear sets the stroke style, guides and strictness; no practice there is saved.