Shortform
“behind” in braille
Written b-e-h — 6 letters cut to 3 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 4 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 2-3, then dots 1-2-5
Unicode ⠆⠓ — 6 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
The be- sign then an h. Two cells for six letters, and “behinds” keeps the contraction — one of the five be- words with a plural, against because, before and beneath, which have none. Its second cell is an h, which alone is the word “have”, so the pair reads as “be have” to anyone who has not learned it.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “behind” loses 3 letters — i, n, d — to become beh. Then it contracts again: be is a single cell, which is how 3 letters of abbreviation fit into 2 cells.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | behind | 6 cells |
| Abbreviated | beh | 3 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Endings it keeps
Of the 4 English words that begin with these letters, the reference keeps the shortform in every one. The one ending that survives is -s. Everything else is spelled out.
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| behinds | -s | 3 cells |
Learn it with the be- words
This is one of 8 shortforms built to the same shape — the be- sign, then one letter — and the set is far quicker learned together than one word at a time: because (bec), before (bef), below (bel), beneath (ben), beside (bes), between (bet), beyond (bey).
What these 2 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 2-3 | the letters bb between two letters; the prefix be- at the start of a word; the word “be” standing alone; the semicolon | |
| 1-2-5 | the letter h; the word “have” standing alone |
Check your own text
The translator writes “behind” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-three.
“behind” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: beh in 2 cells, not 6 letters.
