The short version
- Type the sound you intend, one word at a time.
- Press Space to accept the highlighted candidate; use alternatives for ambiguous sounds.
- Protect acronyms, URLs, emails and exact identifiers.
- Names should be checked by the person who owns or uses the spelling.
Transliteration is about sound
Romanised Nepali typing maps a Roman spelling to a Nepali-script sound. It does not translate meaning. “mero” can become “मेरो”; an English loanword such as “advisor” can be rendered phonetically as “एडभाइजर”.
There is no single universal Roman spelling for every Nepali sound. Users may type chha or cha, sh or s, and b, v or w for nearby sounds. A good candidate bar offers reviewed alternatives instead of silently replacing the word with one irreversible guess.
Use deliberate word boundaries
Type a complete word and press Space. On mobile, the input should accept the preferred candidate even when the keyboard reports composition events instead of a normal keydown. Punctuation and line breaks should preserve the converted word and exactly one delimiter.
If the intended spelling is not first, use arrow keys or the numbered candidate. Reviewed exact mappings should outrank remembered or model-generated suggestions.
Names and conjuncts need attention
Personal and place names can have legitimate spelling preferences that a general model cannot know. For example, a surname should be confirmed from the person’s own documents rather than inferred only from sound.
Conjuncts such as “ष्ण”, “ज्ञ”, “त्र” and “न्य” benefit from clearer Roman segmentation and reviewed mappings. Use the candidate list, then proofread the final Unicode text.
Keep exact data protected
Do not transliterate PAN, VAT, OCR, URLs, emails or reference numbers. Brace-wrapped text can be used when an exact Roman token must remain unchanged. Latin and Nepali numerals should be switched deliberately, with identifier fields remaining Latin by default.
Local candidate typing can remain private on the device. Optional cloud wording improvement is a separate action and should never run without clear consent.
Where to check the details
For an important payroll, filing or financial decision, open the source itself and check whether anything has changed since this guide was updated.
- AI4Bharat IndicXlit
Open model/reference project attributed by the toolkit.
- Nepal Toolkit third-party notices
Model, runtime and license disclosures.