AZERTY keyboard layout
AZERTY is the standard keyboard layout in France and Belgium, a French adaptation of QWERTY from the 1890s that swaps A with Q and Z with W and puts accented letters on the number row.
- Created by
- Unknown
- French typewriters
- Year
- 1890s
- Revised 2019 (NF Z71-300)
- Finger travel
- +11%
- vs QWERTY
- Home row
- 30%
- of letters, QWERTY 37%
The layout
The French AZERTY layout: A and Q swapped, Z and W swapped, M beside L, and digits on Shift.
AZERTY is typed with standard touch-typing fingering on any keyboard; French keyboards are usually ISO, with an extra key beside the left Shift.
How AZERTY measures
AZERTY typed on 23,331 words of English and compared with QWERTY.
History
- 1890sAppears in France, adapted from layouts on American typewriters. The designer is unknown; it beat French rivals largely by staying close to QWERTY.
- 1900s–2010sFor decades some French characters, such as a capital É and the « » quotation marks, need workarounds. Belgium settles on its own variant.
- 2019AFNOR publishes NF Z71-300: an improved AZERTY that keeps letters and digits in place and adds the missing characters.
- TodayThe 2019 standard ships with Windows 11 and Linux.
Design goal: Adapt the QWERTY typewriter layout to French; the 2019 standard version aims to type every French character correctly.
Pros
- The native layout in France and Belgium, printed on keyboards sold there.
- Common French accented letters such as é, è, à and ç are single keystrokes.
- The 2019 standard version fills the old gaps and is built into Windows 11 and Linux.
Cons
- Digits need Shift, which is awkward for numbers and passwords.
- French and Belgian versions differ, as do Windows and Mac versions.
- For English text it puts even fewer letters on the home row than QWERTY.
AZERTY compared
Against QWERTY and other national standards, ranked by finger travel per 1,000 words.
| Layout | Finger travel | vs QWERTY | Home row | Same finger | Alternation | Left hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QZERTY | 128.0 m | −2% | 39% | 7.1% | 55% | 57% |
| QWERTY | 130.0 m | — | 37% | 6.5% | 55% | 57% |
| QWERTZ | 132.8 m | +2% | 37% | 6.8% | 55% | 59% |
| AZERTYTHIS PAGE | 144.6 m | +11% | 30% | 7.4% | 55% | 58% |
Nobody knows who designed AZERTY. It appeared on French typewriters in the 1890s, and its modern standard, NF Z71-300, was published by AFNOR in 2019.
It moves your fingers more on English text. On 23,331 words of English, finger travel was +11% against QWERTY, 30% of letters landed on the home row against QWERTY’s 37%, and same-finger pairs were 7.4% against 6.5%. Less movement does not guarantee more speed, and switching takes weeks of practice.
AZERTY is typed with standard touch-typing fingering on any keyboard; French keyboards are usually ISO, with an extra key beside the left Shift.
Yes. French and Belgian AZERTY are built into Windows, macOS and Linux; the 2019 AFNOR version is built into Windows 11 and Linux.
Yes. Choose AZERTY as your keyboard layout and the on-screen keyboard and hands show where every key is.