Common Bigram Drill (th he in er an)
th he in er an re on at en nd
Every passage contains: th he in er an re on at en nd
QWERTY layout assumed. Backspace corrects; uncorrected errors count against net WPM.
This drill repeats the ten most frequent English letter pairs — th, he, in, er, an, re, on, at, en, and nd — back to back, over and over, purely for motor automaticity. Unlike the practice path's bigram lesson, which introduces the concept once, this is meant as a rep set you return to regularly, the way an athlete repeats a specific drill in every training session rather than once.
This drill and the practice path's Speed Building: Common Letter Pairs lesson cover the same underlying ten pairs deliberately, so anything you learn in the lesson transfers directly here — think of the lesson as the introduction and explanation, and this drill as the ongoing gym session for the same underlying skill.
Because this drill is meant for frequent, ongoing repetition rather than a single pass, consider keeping a rough mental note of which of the ten pairs still feels the least automatic after several sessions — that specific pair is worth a few extra seconds of focused attention each time you return to this drill.
Why This Drill
These ten pairs alone account for a very large share of all two-letter sequences in ordinary written English, so improving the raw speed and accuracy of typing them has a broad, generalized payoff across essentially everything you type, rather than helping with one narrow type of text. Because bigram speed tends to plateau and then quietly slip if it isn't maintained, treating this as a recurring warm-up rather than a lesson you finish once keeps the gains from fading.
A reasonable way to fold this drill into a broader practice routine is as a genuine warm-up: a couple of minutes here before a longer test or a full lesson primes exactly the finger-pair motions that show up most across ordinary English text, which can make the session that follows feel measurably smoother than starting cold.
Which of the ten is slowest for you
The ten pairs here are not equally difficult, and which ones cost you is personal rather than general. Some fall on two different hands and are close to free; some fall on adjacent fingers of one hand and can overlap their presses; at least one will land awkwardly for your particular hands and be measurably slower than the rest.
That is worth finding out, because it converts this drill from general practice into targeted practice. Run it a few times and pay attention to where the small stalls fall rather than to the overall pace. The pair that keeps producing a hesitation is the one to spend a minute on, and the other nine are already doing fine without you.
If the slow one turns out to be a pair typed by a single finger, that delay is structural rather than a fault — the finger has to lift and re-place, and the same-finger bigram drill is about reducing the flinch around it rather than removing the cost. If it is a pair spanning two rows, row-jump bigrams is the relevant one instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from the bigram lesson in the practice path?
The lesson introduces the concept and technique once as part of a sequential path; this drill is meant to be repeated indefinitely as an ongoing warm-up or maintenance exercise, the way you'd keep repeating a specific stretch or exercise rather than doing it just once.
Why these particular ten letter pairs?
They're among the most frequently occurring two-letter sequences in ordinary written English, so building genuine speed and accuracy on exactly these pairs has a broader payoff across almost anything you type than practicing rarer combinations would.
Is this a good drill to use as a warm-up before a longer test?
It works well as one. Two minutes here wakes up the motions that dominate whatever you type next, which is more than a cold start gives you.
Is it worth timing myself on this drill the way I would on a full test?
It's optional, but if you do, treat the resulting WPM as a specialized number reflecting pure bigram fluency rather than general typing speed — the two aren't directly comparable, since this drill's dense repetition of just ten pairs behaves very differently from ordinary varied prose.
Is this drill suitable for absolute beginners, or only for typists past the practice path?
It's most useful once you're comfortable with full-keyboard key locations, since the drill assumes you already know where every letter is and focuses purely on speed between known keys — beginners still learning key positions get more value from the sequential practice path first.