Braille a Day

“flower” in braille

⠋⠇⠕⠺⠑⠗6 lettersUncontracted

Written letter by letter, flower in braille is f-l-o-w-e-r, one cell for each letter: ⠋⠇⠕⠺⠑⠗.

Now read one yourself

⠞⠑⠁

Which word is this? tea, down, milk.

Cell by cell

  1. 1. Fdots 1-2-4
  2. 2. Ldots 1-2-3
  3. 3. Odots 1-3-5
  4. 4. Wdots 2-4-5-6
  5. 5. Edots 1-5
  6. 6. Rdots 1-2-3-5

Capitals

Braille letters are lower case unless marked. To start with a capital, as at the start of a sentence, put the capital sign, dot 6, before the first letter: ⠠⠋⠇⠕⠺⠑⠗. For the whole word in capitals, FLOWER, use two capital signs: ⠠⠠⠋⠇⠕⠺⠑⠗.

Grade 1 and Grade 2

This is uncontracted (Grade 1) braille, every letter written out, which is where learners start. Books, signs and labels mostly use Grade 2, where common letter groups and words take a single cell, so some words come out shorter there. See the Grade 2 contractions.

Remember it, don't just look it up

Every word in uncontracted braille is its letters, so short words are where reading starts. Braille a Day brings it back tomorrow to answer from memory, then again just before you'd forget. Five minutes a day.

Practise reading Short wordsPractise writing

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