Shortform
“good” in braille
Written g-d — 4 letters cut to 2 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 2 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-2-4-5, then dots 1-4-5
Unicode ⠛⠙ — 4 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
g-d, and no shortform but “after” has more longer words on the Shortforms List: 58 of them, from goodbye and goodness to goodwill. In a word the list does not name it stops where a vowel follows — “gooding” is spelled out (Rules of Unified English Braille 10.9.3).
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “good” loses 2 letters — o, o — to become gd. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | good | 4 cells |
| Abbreviated | gd | 2 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Longer words that keep it
For “good” the Shortforms List (Rules of Unified English Braille, Appendix 1) names 58 longer words that keep it, among them goody ⠛⠙⠽, goodby ⠛⠙⠃⠽, gooder ⠛⠙⠻, goodie ⠛⠙⠊⠑, goodly ⠛⠙⠇⠽ and goodun ⠛⠙⠥⠝. 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: “goods” is ⠛⠙⠎ (10.9.5).
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| goods | -s | 3 cells | |
| gooder | -er | 3 cells | |
| gooders | -ers | 4 cells | |
| goodly | -ly | 4 cells | |
| goodness | -ness | 4 cells | |
| goodship | -ship | 5 cells | |
| goodless | -less | 4 cells |
Words that only look like it
These begin with the same letters, are not on the Shortforms List, and have a vowel straight after them, where rule 10.9.3 does not use the shortform; each is written out in full.
| Word | In braille | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| gooding | 5 cells | |
| goodishness | 8 cells | |
| goodenia | 7 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2-4-5 | the letter g; the word “go” standing alone | |
| 1-4-5 | the letter d; the word “do” standing alone |
In a whole book
In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (26,439 words), this contraction is written 27 times and saves 54 cells. That is 0.16% of everything Grade 2 saves in the book, and ranks it 97th of the 158 contractions used.
Every one of those is the word “good” itself.
Check your own text
The translator writes “good” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-five.
“good” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: gd in 2 cells, not 4 letters.
