Shortform
“about” in braille
Written a-b — 5 letters cut to 2 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 3 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1, then dots 1-2
Unicode ⠁⠃ — 5 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
Five letters down to a-b, and the plural is the interesting part: “abouts” is spelled out in full. Every shortform but three keeps its cells before an added s (Rules of Unified English Braille 10.9.5), and this is one of the three, with “almost” and “him”.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “about” loses 3 letters — o, u, t — to become ab. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | about | 5 cells |
| Abbreviated | ab | 2 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Longer words that keep it
For “about” the Shortforms List (Rules of Unified English Braille, Appendix 1) names 23 longer words that keep it, among them gadabout ⠛⠁⠙⠁⠃, layabout ⠇⠁⠽⠁⠃, runabout ⠗⠥⠝⠁⠃, aboutface ⠁⠃⠋⠁⠉⠑, aboutturn ⠁⠃⠞⠥⠗⠝ and eastabout ⠑⠁⠌⠁⠃. A longer word that is not on the list is spelled out. An added s does not keep it: “abouts” is spelled out, ⠁⠃⠳⠞⠎, one of the three words rule 10.9.5 names.
What these 2 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | the letter a | |
| 1-2 | the letter b; the word “but” standing alone |
In a whole book
In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (26,439 words), this contraction is written 94 times and saves 282 cells. That is 0.82% of everything Grade 2 saves in the book, and ranks it 33rd of the 158 contractions used.
Every one of those is the word “about” itself.
Check your own text
The translator writes “about” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-five.
“about” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: ab in 2 cells, not 5 letters.
