Letter 6 of 26
The letter F in braille
F is dots 1, 2 and 4.
Dots 1-2-4
Unicode ⠋ — U+280B
How to recognise it
Dots 1, 2 and 4 form a corner opening down-left — the mirror image of d.
F, P and the “and” sign
F is the base shape. Add dot 3 and it becomes P; add dots 3 and 6 and the cell is not a letter at all but the “and” sign, ⠯.
Adding dots 3 and 6 turns a, b, c, d and e into u, v, x, y and z. For f, g, h, i and j the same step gives the words and, for, of, the and with — so f plus dots 3 and 6 is “and”, not a letter. The contraction reference lists all five.
One row lower: the exclamation mark
Slide every dot of F down one row — dots 1-2-4 become dots 2-3-5 — and the cell is the exclamation mark.
F is also the digit 6
After the number sign, dots 3-4-5-6, F is read as 6 — and one number sign carries a whole run of digits, so 66 is three cells: ⠼⠋⠋. Braille numbers covers where the run ends.
Where F turns up in Grade 2
Standing alone, F is the word “from”. Inside a word it is the letter again: “fog” is ⠋⠕⠛.
| Cell | Letters | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| for | one cell for “for”, whether it is a word of its own or letters inside one | |
| of | one cell for “of”, whether it is a word of its own or letters inside one | |
| ff | one cell for “ff” in the middle of a word, never at its start or end |
The contraction reference gives the rules for each.
Writing a capital F
Capital F is two cells: the capital sign, dot 6, then F. A word in capitals takes the sign twice, once for the whole word: “FOG” is ⠠⠠⠋⠕⠛. Capitals covers longer runs.
Easily confused with
F differs by a single dot from B, C, G, I and P — the letters to drill it against.
Practice words
Words that start with F, one cell per letter in Grade 1. Where Grade 2 writes one shorter, that form follows.
for
Grade 2: ⠿ — 1 cell instead of 3
fish
Grade 2: ⠋⠊⠩ — 3 cells instead of 4
find
Grade 2: ⠋⠔⠙ — 3 cells instead of 4
In a whole book
In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the letter f is printed 2,000 times. Grade 2 still writes it as its own cell 792 times, 39.6%. The other 1,208 are inside contractions, most often “of” (619), “for” (189), “herself” (83) and “ful” (56).
The cell itself is written 1,092 times in the Grade 2 text: 792 as the letter, 36 as the word “from”, 258 inside shortforms and 6 as the second cell of a two-cell contraction.
F in braille as an image
