Shortform
“blind” in braille
Written b-l — 5 letters cut to 2 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 3 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-2, then dots 1-2-3
Unicode ⠃⠇ — 5 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
b-l in two cells, and it carries four different endings — blinds, blindly, blindness and blindless all keep it. “blindest” does not, which no rule in the spelling predicts.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “blind” loses 3 letters — i, n, d — to become bl. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | blind | 5 cells |
| Abbreviated | bl | 2 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Endings it keeps
Of the 37 English words that begin with these letters, the reference keeps the shortform in every one. The endings that survive are -s, -ly, -ness, -less. Everything else is spelled out.
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| blinds | -s | 3 cells | |
| blindly | -ly | 4 cells | |
| blindness | -ness | 4 cells | |
| blindless | -less | 4 cells |
What these 2 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | the letter b; the word “but” standing alone | |
| 1-2-3 | the letter l; the word “like” standing alone |
Check your own text
The translator writes “blind” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-three.
“blind” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: bl in 2 cells, not 5 letters.
