Shortform
“afternoon” in braille
Written a-f-n — 9 letters cut to 3 letters of abbreviation, then written in 3 cells. That is 6 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1, then dots 1-2-4, then dots 1-3-4-5
Unicode ⠁⠋⠝ — 9 letters in 3 cells
How to recognise it
a-f-n — the “after” shortform with an n stuck on the end, not a new abbreviation. In the af- group the first two cells are always “after”, and the third says which one. The n alone is the word “not”, which is the only thing that can be confused here.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “afternoon” loses 6 letters — t, e, r, o, o, n — to become afn. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | afternoon | 9 cells |
| Abbreviated | afn | 3 letters |
| Written | 3 cells |
Longer words that keep it
For “afternoon” the Shortforms List (Rules of Unified English Braille, Appendix 1) names three longer words that keep it: afternoontea ⠁⠋⠝⠞⠑⠁, midafternoon ⠍⠊⠙⠁⠋⠝ and goodafternoon ⠛⠙⠁⠋⠝. A longer word that is not on the list is spelled out. An added s keeps the cells as well: “afternoons” is ⠁⠋⠝⠎ (10.9.5).
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| afternoons | -s | 4 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: after (af), afterward (afw).
What these 3 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 | |
| 1-3-4-5 | the letter n; the word “not” standing alone |
In a whole book
In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (26,439 words), this contraction is never written: the word “afternoon” does not occur in the book. It is one of 24, out of 182, that the story has no use for.
Check your own text
The translator writes “afternoon” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-five.
“afternoon” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: afn in 3 cells, not 9 letters.
