The letter J in braille

How to recognise it

Dots 2, 4 and 5 close the first decade. j is h mirrored, and it is also the cell that becomes the digit 0 after a number sign — the only digit that breaks the a=1 pattern.

J, T and the “with” sign

J is the base shape. Add dot 3 and it becomes T; add dots 3 and 6 and the cell is not a letter at all but the “with” 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 j plus dots 3 and 6 is “with”, not a letter. The contraction reference lists all five.

One row lower: the closing double quote

Slide every dot of J down one row — dots 2-4-5 become dots 3-5-6 — and the cell is the closing double quote.

J is also the digit 0

After the number sign, dots 3-4-5-6, J is read as 0 — and one number sign carries a whole run of digits, so 00 is three cells: ⠼⠚⠚. Braille numbers covers where the run ends.

Where J turns up in Grade 2

Standing alone, J is the word “just”. Inside a word it is the letter again: “jump” is ⠚⠥⠍⠏.

Writing a capital J

Capital J is two cells: the capital sign, dot 6, then J. A word in capitals takes the sign twice, once for the whole word: “JUMP” is ⠠⠠⠚⠥⠍⠏. Capitals covers longer runs.

Easily confused with

J differs by a single dot from G, I, T and W — the letters to drill it against.

Practice words

Words that start with J, one cell per letter in Grade 1. Where Grade 2 writes one shorter, that form follows.

In a whole book

In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the letter j is printed 146 times. Grade 2 still writes it as its own cell 94 times, 64.4%. The other 52 are inside contractions: “just” (52).

The cell itself is written 146 times in the Grade 2 text: 94 as the letter and 52 as the word “just”.