Monkeytype Languages: How to Type in Polish and More

The Short Answer

I read the Polish word lists in Monkeytype's open source code on GitHub, and I counted the special letters in them myself.

Below is how to switch, which list to pick, and how to deal with the accents.

How to Switch Monkeytype to Polish

There are three ways, and they all lead to the same list.

1. 1Above the words on the test screen, there's a small globe icon next to the current language. Click it.
2. 2Open the command line with ctrl and shift and P, or cmd and shift and P on a Mac, then search for language.
3. 3Go to the settings page and find the language setting.

Type polish in the search box and pick the list you want.

The list is long, so typing a few letters is faster than scrolling.

Which Polish List to Pick

Monkeytype doesn't have one Polish list. It has seven.

The basic one is just called polish. It holds 183 of the most common words, which makes it the closest match to the default English test.

Then come the bigger lists: polish 2k, 5k, 10k, 20k, 40k and 200k. The number is roughly how many words each one holds. When I opened the 2k file, it actually had 2,338 words.

Start with the basic list. Move up a size once your speed stops climbing, because the bigger lists bring in longer and rarer words that slow everyone down.

The 200k List Is Something Else

The biggest list is a different kind of test.

It holds 199,974 entries, and it reads more like a dictionary than a word list. The first few are A, AA, aaa, Aachen and Aalborg. The sixth, aalborski, just means from Aalborg.

That means capital letters, place names, abbreviations and words you may never have seen.

It's fun once. It's a poor way to build speed, though, because you spend most of the test reading instead of typing.

If you want variety without the chaos, the 10k or 20k list is a better middle ground.

The Polish Letters You'll Type

Polish adds nine letters to the usual Latin set: ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź and ż.

They aren't rare. I counted them in the basic list, and 73 of its 183 words contain at least one. That's about 40 percent of the test.

You'll meet them in the very first words. The list opens with jego, że, on, dla, na and są, so two of its first six words already need a special letter. The seventh, zespół, means team, and it packs two of them into one word.

So if your keyboard can't type them, you'll make mistakes on nearly every line. That's the first thing to fix.

Why ć Shows Up So Often

Not all nine letters are equal.

I counted every special letter in the polish 2k list. The letter ć came first by a wide margin, with 418 uses. Next came ł with 261, ś with 168 and ó with 140.

After those came ż with 124, ą with 104, ę with 97 and ń with 54. The letter ź was last, with only 22.

The reason for ć is grammar. Most Polish verbs end in ć in their basic form, like być, mieć and zobaczyć, and word lists include a lot of verbs.

So practice ć and ł first. They'll pay off fastest.

How to Type Polish Letters on a Normal Keyboard

Many Polish typists use a layout called Polish programmers. It looks like a normal US keyboard, and the special letters sit behind the right Alt key, often labelled AltGr.

Monkeytype's own file for that layout shows the pattern. Right Alt with a gives ą, with c gives ć, and with e gives ę.

The rest follow the same idea. Right Alt with l gives ł, n gives ń, o gives ó and s gives ś.

The two z letters are the tricky pair. Right Alt with z gives ż. For ź, you press right Alt with x, because z was already taken.

Set the Layout on Your Computer

Monkeytype does have a layout setting, but it's not the one you want here.

Its own description says the setting lets you emulate other layouts, and that it's "best kept off, as it can break things like dead keys and alt layers." Right Alt is exactly that kind of alt layer.

So add the Polish programmers keyboard in your computer's language settings instead. Then switch to it before you start a Polish test.

If you also type in English, keep both keyboards installed. Most systems let you switch between them with a shortcut.

Lazy Mode: Skip the Accents

Don't want to learn the right Alt combos yet? Lazy mode is the shortcut.

Monkeytype describes it as a setting that "replaces accents / diacritics / special characters with their normal letter equivalents." I checked its code, and it covers all nine Polish letters. So ł becomes l, ą becomes a, and both ż and ź become z.

The test then shows plain letters, so you can type Polish words on any keyboard.

There's a catch. You aren't practicing the real letters, and real Polish text still needs them. Use lazy mode to learn the words, then turn it off.

Polish Quotes

Word lists are random. Quotes are real sentences, with capitals and punctuation.

Monkeytype has 242 Polish quotes. They come in four length groups: up to 100 characters, 101 to 300, 301 to 600, and anything longer.

The first one in the file begins, "Są dwie drogi, aby przeżyć życie." That short line already needs ą, ć and ż, and ż shows up twice.

To use them, keep Polish as your language and switch the test mode to quote. Short quotes are a good warm up. Long ones are a real test of stamina.

Mixing Languages With Polyglot

If you type in more than one language, there's a fun mode for that.

Polyglot is one of Monkeytype's funbox modes. Its description says it lets you "use words from multiple languages in a single test." You pick at least two languages, and the test mixes their words.

It's good practice for switching between Polish and English quickly.

There's one limit. Monkeytype's code marks polyglot as unable to set a personal best, so your results there won't count toward your records. Treat it as practice, not as a score.

Will Your Polish Speed Match Your English?

Probably not at first, and that's normal.

Monkeytype counts every five characters as one word, in every language. So long Polish words don't hurt your WPM on their own.

The special letters do, though. Each one with right Alt takes two keys at once but counts as one character. That costs time, and it's an easy place to make mistakes.

Unfamiliar spelling slows you down too. Our guide on typing speed in other languages compares how speeds change from one language to another.

Other Languages Work the Same Way

Polish is just one option. Monkeytype's code lists 446 language choices, counting every word list size and the programming languages.

The steps are the same for German, Spanish or anything else. Click the globe, search, and pick a list. Lazy mode handles many other accents too, like é and ß.

Your keyboard matters just as much as the list. Our guide to QWERTZ vs QWERTY covers the German side.

Anyone can add a new language, too. Monkeytype's guide to adding languages explains the file format.

My Checklist for Polish Practice

Here's how I'd set it up.

1. 1Add the Polish programmers keyboard on your computer.
2. 2Pick the basic polish list in Monkeytype.
3. 3Drill ć and ł first, since they come up most.
4. 4Use lazy mode only while you learn the words.
5. 5Move to quotes once the word lists feel easy.

To compare, practice English on TypingFastest and see how far apart your two speeds are. The gap usually shrinks as the right Alt keys become automatic.