The letter V in braille

How to recognise it

Dots 1, 2, 3 and 6. v is b plus dots 3 and 6 — the left column is complete and dot 6 anchors the bottom right.

B, L and V: one shape

V is B with dots 3 and 6 added; with dot 3 alone, B is L.

Where V turns up in Grade 2

Standing alone, V is the word “very”. Inside a word it is the letter again: “voice” is ⠧⠕⠊⠉⠑.

Writing a capital V

Capital V is two cells: the capital sign, dot 6, then V. A word in capitals takes the sign twice, once for the whole word: “VOICE” is ⠠⠠⠧⠕⠊⠉⠑. Capitals covers longer runs.

Easily confused with

V differs by a single dot from L and U — the letters to drill it against.

Practice words

Words that start with V, 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 v is printed 845 times. Grade 2 still writes it as its own cell 493 times, 58.3%. The other 352 are inside contractions, most often “very” (130), “ever” (126), “have” (76) and “every” (12).

The cell itself is written 631 times in the Grade 2 text: 493 as the letter, 130 as the word “very” and 8 inside shortforms.