Glossary
Input method editor (IME)
An input method editor (IME) is software that supports text input for characters that cannot be typed easily on a standard keyboard, such as many East Asian characters. Speech input can also be an input method, and Android allows only one input method to be enabled at a time.
Updated October 17, 20263 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called IME, input method.
An input method editor (IME) is a piece of software that lets you enter text the keyboard does not show directly. Microsoft defines it as a software component that supports text input for languages that cannot be represented easily on a standard QWERTY keyboard, such as those of various East Asian languages 1. Other names for the same idea include input method, and the short form IME.
An IME turns keystrokes or speech into the characters you want
A standard keyboard has a few dozen keys, while Chinese, Japanese and Korean use thousands of characters. An IME bridges the gap. You type a phonetic spelling, or in some cases speak, and the IME offers the characters that match. You pick the one you want, and the text is inserted. The same mechanism lets you type a language with a different alphabet on a Latin keyboard.
Speech input is one kind of input method
An IME does not have to be a keyboard. Android's developer documentation says its input method framework lets apps provide alternative input methods, such as on-screen keyboards or speech input 2. That means a voice typing tool on Android can sit in the same place as a keyboard.
Only one input method is active at a time on Android
On Android, you install input methods and then select one in system settings. It is used across the whole system, and only one can be enabled at a time 3. If you switch to a voice keyboard for one app, the typing keyboard is replaced everywhere else until you switch back. Other platforms handle this differently, so check the input switcher on your device.
Why it matters for dictation and typing
For people who type Chinese, Japanese or Korean, the IME is the step that turns a phonetic spelling into the right character. For dictation, the IME is the piece that places the recognized text into the field. If the wrong input method is active, the dictation may not reach the field at all, so check the input switcher before you speak. The Japanese, Chinese and Korean speech to text guide covers both typing and speaking in these languages.
Related terms
- Transliteration: writing a word in another script, often done by an IME.
- Character error rate (CER): the measure used to score character-based text.
- QWERTY: the standard keyboard layout that IMEs extend.
- Third-party keyboard: an IME installed from outside the system.
Guides that cover it
Evidence
Every number on this page, with where it comes from. Open a fact to see the exact words in its source.
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
Related terms
- Dictation Languages, Accents and Voice TranslationThe topic this term belongs to
- AccentAn accent is the way a speaker pronounces a language, shaped by where they grew up, their first language or their community. Accents change pronunciation, not vocabulary, and speech recognition error rates can differ sharply from one accent to another.
- Character error rate (CER)Character error rate (CER) is the number of character insertions, substitutions and deletions needed to turn a recognizer's output into the correct text, divided by the number of characters in the correct text. It is the usual measure where words are not separated by spaces.
- Code-switchingCode-switching is the habit of moving between two or more languages within a conversation or a single sentence. Speech recognizers built around one language often misread the switched words, so mixed speech is harder to dictate than speech in one language.
- DiacriticsDiacritics are marks added to a letter, such as the acute accent in é, the tilde in ñ or the vowel marks in Arabic, that change how a letter sounds or which word it spells. Speech tools and everyday writers often leave them out, so a dictated word can come out spelled differently from what you meant.
- DialectA dialect is a regional or social variety of a language, with its own vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Speech recognition is usually less accurate on dialects than on the standard form, because labeled training data for dialects is often scarcer.
- LocaleA locale is a language combined with a region, and sometimes a script, such as en-GB for English as used in the United Kingdom. Dictation and speech settings use locales because the same language can differ in spelling, punctuation and speech patterns from one region to another.
- Low-resource languageA low-resource language is one with little digital speech and text data for training speech recognition and other language tools. There is no fixed cutoff, and a language can be well resourced for one task and poorly resourced for another.
- Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), also called Fusha, is the standardized form of Arabic used in writing and formal speech, such as news broadcasts and official documents. Speakers use regional dialects in everyday conversation, and speech tools recognize formal Arabic more accurately than dialect speech.
- Non-native speechNon-native speech is speech in a language that is not the speaker's first language, often called L2 speech or foreign-accented speech. Recognizers can transcribe read non-native English well, but they handle hesitations, repetitions and revisions differently, and results depend on the system.
- PinyinPinyin, also called Hanyu Pinyin, is the system that spells Mandarin Chinese syllables with the Latin alphabet and marks the tones with diacritics. People type Chinese by spelling the sound in Pinyin and choosing the character they want, and speech tools must choose among characters that share one Pinyin spelling.
- Right-to-left (RTL) scriptA right-to-left (RTL) script is a writing system, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian or Urdu, whose letters run from right to left. Text that mixes these letters with digits or Latin words is bidirectional, so software needs a specific algorithm to order and display it.
- Speech translationSpeech translation converts speech in one language into the same meaning in another language, as text or as synthesized speech. Most systems first recognize the speech and then translate the text, so a recognition error carries into the translation.
Pages that use this term
- Dictation Languages, Accents and Voice TranslationTopic
- Japanese, Chinese and Korean Speech to TextGuide
- Dictation Punctuation Commands in Other LanguagesGuide
- How can you type Japanese faster?Question
- How do you dictate in Japanese on a phone or computer?Question
- How do you voice type in Chinese?Question
- Character error rate (CER)Glossary
- PinyinGlossary
- TransliterationGlossary
- WaylandGlossary