Shortform
“afterward” in braille
Written a-f-w — 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 2-4-5-6
Unicode ⠁⠋⠺ — 9 letters in 3 cells
How to recognise it
a-f-w, the third member of the af- set, and the only one of the three that is not among the five thousand commonest English words. In practice “afterwards” is the spelling people write, and it keeps the shortform and adds an s — so the form you will actually meet is four cells, not three.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “afterward” loses 6 letters — t, e, r, a, r, d — to become afw. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | afterward | 9 cells |
| Abbreviated | afw | 3 letters |
| Written | 3 cells |
Endings it keeps
One English word begins with these letters, and the reference keeps the shortform in it. The one ending that survives is -s. Everything else is spelled out.
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| afterwards | -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 — and the set is far quicker learned together than one word at a time: after (af), afternoon (afn).
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 | |
| 2-4-5-6 | the letter w; the word “will” standing alone |
Check your own text
The translator writes “afterward” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-three.
“afterward” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: afw in 3 cells, not 9 letters.
