Shortform
“first” in braille
Written f-s-t — 5 letters cut to 3 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 3 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-2-4, then dots 3-4
Unicode ⠋⠌ — 5 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
f-st, where the st is one cell — two cells for five letters. It keeps its shortform in firstly, firstness and firstship, and loses it in “firster”, where a vowel follows (Rules of Unified English Braille 10.9.3).
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “first” loses 2 letters — i, r — to become fst. Then it contracts again: st is a single cell, which is how 3 letters of abbreviation fit into 2 cells.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | first | 5 cells |
| Abbreviated | fst | 3 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Longer words that keep it
For “first” the Shortforms List (Rules of Unified English Braille, Appendix 1) names 24 longer words that keep it, among them firstly ⠋⠌⠇⠽, firstaid ⠋⠌⠁⠊⠙, firstday ⠋⠌⠐⠙, feetfirst ⠋⠑⠑⠞⠋⠌, firstborn ⠋⠌⠃⠕⠗⠝ and firsthand ⠋⠌⠓⠯. In a word the list does not name, the shortform is still used where it begins the word and no vowel or y follows (10.9.3); anywhere else the word is spelled out. An added s keeps the cells as well: “firsts” is ⠋⠌⠎ (10.9.5).
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| firsts | -s | 3 cells | |
| firstly | -ly | 4 cells | |
| firstness | -ness | 4 cells | |
| firstship | -ship | 5 cells |
Words that only look like it
This begins with the same letters, is not on the Shortforms List, and has a vowel straight after them, where rule 10.9.3 does not use the shortform; it is written out in full.
| Word | In braille | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| firster | 5 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2-4 | the letter f; the word “from” standing alone | |
| 3-4 | the letters st inside a word, and the word “still” alone |
In a whole book
In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (26,439 words), this contraction is written 51 times and saves 153 cells. That is 0.44% of everything Grade 2 saves in the book, and ranks it 56th of the 158 contractions used.
Every one of those is the word “first” itself.
Check your own text
The translator writes “first” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-five.
“first” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: fst in 2 cells, not 5 letters.
