The letter K in braille

How to recognise it

The second decade begins here: k is a with dot 3 added. Every letter from k to t is a decade-1 letter plus that one extra dot at the bottom left.

A, K and U: one shape

K is A with dot 3 added; add dot 6 as well and it becomes U.

Where K turns up in Grade 2

Standing alone, K is the word “knowledge”. Inside a word it is the letter again: “key” is ⠅⠑⠽.

Writing a capital K

Capital K is two cells: the capital sign, dot 6, then K. A word in capitals takes the sign twice, once for the whole word: “KEY” is ⠠⠠⠅⠑⠽. Capitals covers longer runs.

Easily confused with

K differs by a single dot from A, L, M, O and U — the letters to drill it against.

Practice words

Words that start with K, 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 k is printed 1,158 times. Grade 2 still writes it as its own cell 964 times, 83.2%. The other 194 are inside contractions, most often “know” (92), “like” (85), “work” (9) and “quick” (5).

The cell itself is written 1,064 times in the Grade 2 text: 964 as the letter, 3 as the word “knowledge”, 5 inside shortforms and 92 as the second cell of a two-cell contraction.