How to type अच्छा using the keyboard offered here?

Community-Created Courses Indian Languages
1

Dear colleagues, could you please help me with this? I have just started some Hindi courses here at Memrise, but can’t type correctly words that I already learned, like अच्छा. In the digital keyboard used on the course screen, I can find च and छ, but I don’t know how to input just half of च and create the correct combination च्छ using the offered keyboard.

Thank you very much for your help.

2

Assuming that you are using Windows 10:

  • click the Start/Windows button (or hit the key on your keyboard)
  • type “language” into the box (or whatever the word is in the language currently installed on Windows)
  • the entry “language settings” should appear (again, differs according to your language)
  • the Settings window comes up
  • click the “Add a preferred language” link, as shown here:
    image
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  • locate the desired language and install it / follow the instructions

Once you’ve done that, you can use i. e. Windows-key + Spacebar to switch between input languages.
If you don’t have a physical keyboard for each language, click the Windows Start button and type “key”, this should bring up the “On-Screen keyboard” which you can then use instead of your physical keyboard.

3

Thank you very much Olaf. Actually I know about that option of adding a new keyboard but I thought that I should input only through the digital keyboard present inside the course, in which I don’t see how to input the combination च्छ.

4

Well, yes, as a course creator you can pre-select specific keyboards and/or add specific characters. To do so:

  • edit your course
  • click the Database dropdown and choose the database (usually only one) - you now see all words in a tabular list
  • hover over the target language column’s header - you’ll see a pencil-icon appear - click it
  • the Edit Column dialog appears
  • near the top, click Testing
  • you’ll now see the Keyboard characters input box (= manual / specific characters) and, underneath it, the dropdown that allows you to pick an existing keyboard (don’t see any for Hindi though).
5

Oh no, I am not a course creator. I meant for example, the kind of digital keyboard that is present in the course “Teach yourself Hindi” to answer some of the writing exercises. I could manage to use it most of the time, but in cases like that mentioned combination, I need to use an external writer like Baraha Pad and copy/paste.

6

Sorry, I misinterpreted your “started some Hindi courses”. :grimacing:

Sadly, this is a setting that only the course creator can change (course contributors can’t). So the only chance you have is to contact the course author here. This requires that (s)he has a forum account. Go to the course and check the creator’s name and try to tag her/him here by typing @ followed by the name, i. e. @romulomalta2219. If a dropdown appears that shows the name and the name’s background turns grey, the user will be notified. If not, you won’t have any chance to change this, I’m afraid.

7

Thank you very much for your prompt help Olaf!

1 Like
8

I’m not sure if it is given on the keyboard, but there should be a ‘halant’ symbol that looks like this:
image

To type अच्छा, you need to place the halant – also called virama – between च and छ.

The halant is used to ‘connect’ letters and create ligatures in Devanagari.