Shortform
“myself” in braille
Written m-y-f — 6 letters cut to 3 letters of abbreviation, then written in 3 cells. That is 3 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-3-4, then dots 1-3-4-5-6, then dots 1-2-4
Unicode ⠍⠽⠋ — 6 letters in 3 cells
How to recognise it
m-y-f. The five singular -self words all end in f and the three -selves plurals all end v-s, so the ending tells you the number and the cells before it tell you who. Here the middle cell is a y, which alone is the word “you” — the wrong pronoun entirely, and the mistake worth guarding against.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “myself” loses 3 letters — s, e, l — to become myf. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | myself | 6 cells |
| Abbreviated | myf | 3 letters |
| Written | 3 cells |
It carries no endings
No English word begins with “myself” except the word itself, so there is nothing for an ending rule to decide here. These 3 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), itself (xf), yourself (yrf).
What these 3 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1-3-4 | the letter m; the word “more” standing alone | |
| 1-3-4-5-6 | the letter y; the word “you” standing alone | |
| 1-2-4 | the letter f; the word “from” standing alone |
Check your own text
The translator writes “myself” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-three.
“myself” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: myf in 3 cells, not 6 letters.
