Letter 4 of 26
The letter D in braille
D is dots 1, 4 and 5.
Dots 1-4-5
Unicode ⠙ — U+2819
How to recognise it
Dots 1, 4 and 5 form a corner opening down-right. d is f flipped horizontally, and telling those two apart is one of the first real skills in tactile reading.
How this cell is built
D is one of the ten base shapes of decade 1, built from dots 1, 2, 4 and 5 only. Every letter from k onwards is one of these ten with extra dots added.
Easily confused with
These letters differ from D by a single dot, which is where reading errors actually happen. Drill them against each other rather than in alphabetical order.
Practice words
Each word below starts with D, written in Grade 1 so every letter has its own cell.
day
door
down
In Grade 2 this letter is also a word
Standing alone, D means “do”. Inside a longer word it is just the letter d. See the contraction reference for the full list.