The letter X in braille

How to recognise it

Dots 1, 3, 4 and 6. x is c plus dots 3 and 6, giving a cell with all four corners raised and the middle row empty — a very distinctive frame shape.

C, M and X: one shape

X is C with dots 3 and 6 added; with dot 3 alone, C is M.

Where X turns up in Grade 2

Standing alone, X is the word “it”. Inside a word it is the letter again: “box” is ⠃⠕⠭.

Writing a capital X

Capital X is two cells: the capital sign, dot 6, then X. A word in capitals takes the sign twice, once for the whole word: “BOX” is ⠠⠠⠃⠕⠭. Capitals covers longer runs.

Easily confused with

X differs by a single dot from M, U and Y — the letters to drill it against.

Practice words

Words that start with X, one cell per letter in Grade 1.

In a whole book

In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the letter x is printed 148 times. Grade 2 still writes it as its own cell every time. It is never inside a contraction there.

The cell itself is written 811 times in the Grade 2 text: 148 as the letter, 592 as the word “it” and 71 inside shortforms.