Shortform
“after” in braille
Written a-f — 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 1-2-4
Unicode ⠁⠋ — 5 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
Two cells, a-f, and it is the busiest stem on the list: 188 English words begin with “after” and the reference contracts every single one of them. No other shortform is that consistent inside longer words.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “after” loses 3 letters — t, e, r — to become af. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | after | 5 cells |
| Abbreviated | af | 2 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Endings it keeps
Of the 188 English words that begin with these letters, the reference keeps the shortform in every one. The endings that survive are -s, -ship. Everything else is spelled out.
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| afters | -s | 3 cells | |
| aftership | -ship | 5 cells |
Learn it with the af- words
This is one of 3 shortforms built to the same shape — a-f, then what tells them apart — and the set is far quicker learned together than one word at a time: afternoon (afn), afterward (afw).
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 | |
| 1-2-4 | the letter f; the word “from” standing alone |
Check your own text
The translator writes “after” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-three.
“after” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: af in 2 cells, not 5 letters.
