Shortform
“itself” in braille
Written x-f — 6 letters cut to 2 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 4 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-3-4-6, then dots 1-2-4
Unicode ⠭⠋ — 6 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
x-f — the “its” abbreviation with the -self f on the end. The x is borrowed, not spelled: “itself” has no x in it either.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “itself” loses 6 letters — i, t, s, e, l, f — to become xf. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | itself | 6 cells |
| Abbreviated | xf | 2 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
It carries no endings
No English word begins with “itself” except the word itself, so there is nothing for an ending rule to decide here. These 2 cells write the bare word and nothing else. “good” is the opposite case — it carries seven different endings.
Learn it with the -self words
This is one of 5 shortforms built to the same shape — the pronoun, then an f — and the set is far quicker learned together than one word at a time: herself (herf), himself (hmf), myself (myf), yourself (yrf).
What these 2 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1-3-4-6 | the letter x; the word “it” standing alone | |
| 1-2-4 | the letter f; the word “from” standing alone |
Check your own text
The translator writes “itself” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-three.
“itself” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: xf in 2 cells, not 6 letters.
