Braille a Day

“grandma” in braille

⠛⠗⠁⠝⠙⠍⠁7 lettersUncontracted

Written letter by letter, grandma in braille is g-r-a-n-d-m-a, one cell for each letter: ⠛⠗⠁⠝⠙⠍⠁.

Now read one yourself

⠙⠁⠝⠛⠑⠗

Which word is this? danger, mum, coffee.

Cell by cell

  1. 1. Gdots 1-2-4-5
  2. 2. Rdots 1-2-3-5
  3. 3. Adot 1
  4. 4. Ndots 1-3-4-5
  5. 5. Ddots 1-4-5
  6. 6. Mdots 1-3-4
  7. 7. Adot 1

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, GRANDMA, 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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