Shortform
“children” in braille
Written c-h-n — 8 letters cut to 3 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 6 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-6, then dots 1-3-4-5
Unicode ⠡⠝ — 8 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
Eight letters in two cells, and the first is the ch sign rather than a c. That cell alone is the word “child”, so “child” and “children” differ by exactly one cell — the tidiest pair on the list.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “children” loses 5 letters — i, l, d, r, e — to become chn. Then it contracts again: ch is a single cell, which is how 3 letters of abbreviation fit into 2 cells.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | children | 8 cells |
| Abbreviated | chn | 3 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
It carries no endings
Nothing derived from “children” keeps this shortform: of the one English word that begins with it, the reference spells it out. These 2 cells write the bare word and nothing else. “good” is the opposite case — it carries seven different endings.
What these 2 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1-6 | the letters ch inside a word, and the word “child” alone | |
| 1-3-4-5 | the letter n; the word “not” standing alone |
Check your own text
The translator writes “children” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-three.
“children” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: chn in 2 cells, not 8 letters.
