Writing Telugu words using phonetic keyboard is as easy as writing our names in English. For example, తెలుగు మాట తీపు can be written as telugu mATa tIpu. The phonetic keyboard is shown below with examples.

See: Phonetic Examples

Vowels:

అ=a, ఆ=A,aa, ఇ=i, ఈ=I,ee, ఉ=u, ఊ=U,oo, ఋ=Ru, ౠ=RU, ఎ=e, ఏ=E, ఐ=ai, ఒ=o, ఓ=O, ఔ=au,ou

ఁ = ~M

ం = M

ః = H

Consonants:

క్=k, ఖ్=K,kh, గ్=g, ఘ్=G,gh, ఙ్=~g

చ్=c,ch, ఛ్=C,Ch, జ్=j, ఝ్=J,jh, ఞ్=~j

ట్=T, ఠ్=Th, డ్=D, ఢ్=Dh, ణ్=N

త్=t, థ్=th, ద్=d, ధ్=dh, న్=n

ప్=p, ఫ్=P,ph, బ్=b, భ్=B,bh, మ్=m

య్=y,Y, ర్=r, ఱ్=rx, ల్=l, వ్=v,w, శ్=S,sh, ష్=Sh, స్=s, హ్=h,~h, ళ్=L

జ్ఞ = j~ja

క్ష = kSha

Others:

ౘ = cxa

ౙ = za, jxa

ఽ = &

₨ = Rs

Danda = |

Double Danda = ||

Zero Width Joiner = ^

Zero Width Non Joiner = ^^

Punctuation Marks:

The English symbols [ ] { } ( ) - + * / = ; : . , " ? ! % \ ~ _ translate into the same symbols in Telugu also.

Quotation Marks:

` ' characters are converted to single smart quotes (‘ ’) characters. We can get double smart quotes (“ ”) by using them twice.

When a consonant character is used alone, it results in a dead consonant(mula vyanjana).

When a consonant character is followed by a vowel character, it results in a live consonant.

When two or more consecutive consonants appear in the input, they make a conjunct. The first consonant takes the full form and the following consonants become half forms.

‘హ’ consonant can be written in two ways; 'h' and '~h'. If you want to apply a ‘హ’ half consonant to consonants such as 'k', 'g', 't', 'd', etc, you have to use '~h' instead of of 'h'.

ZWJ, ZWNJ characters:

^ = ZWJ (zero width joiner)

^^ = ZWNJ (zero width non joiner)

If a dead consonant (consonant with halant symbol) is required in the middle of a word, the ZWJ or ZWNJ character should be used after the consonant.

If two English characters are making one Telugu vowel (ex: ai, ou), then, ZWJ or ZWNJ character can be used to separate them into different vowels.