Braille a Day

“heart” in braille

⠓⠑⠁⠗⠞5 lettersUncontracted

Written letter by letter, heart in braille is h-e-a-r-t, one cell for each letter: ⠓⠑⠁⠗⠞.

Now read one yourself

⠃⠗⠕⠞⠓⠑⠗

Which word is this? brother, danger, believe.

Cell by cell

  1. 1. Hdots 1-2-5
  2. 2. Edots 1-5
  3. 3. Adot 1
  4. 4. Rdots 1-2-3-5
  5. 5. Tdots 2-3-4-5

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, HEART, 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

More words in braille