The “of” contraction in braille

How to recognise it

Dots 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 — the full cell with dot 4 missing, which is the gap to feel for.

On its own it means “of”

With a space either side, this cell is not the letters “of” at all — it is the whole word “of”. Inside a longer word it goes back to standing for just the letter group. One cell, two jobs, told apart by whether it is surrounded by spaces.

Words that use it

Each of these is shorter in Grade 2 than in Grade 1, because the letters “of” collapse into a single cell wherever the rules allow it.

Contractions it is confused with

These differ from “of” by a single dot, which is where reading errors actually happen. Under a fingertip a missing or extra dot is far easier to miss than a completely different shape, so these are the ones worth drilling against each other.

The same cell is a letter in Spanish braille

In Spanish braille this cell is not the “of” contraction. It is the letter á — a letter in its own right, one cell, no prefix. Spanish is a separate braille code rather than UEB with accents added, and all seven of its extra letters land on cells UEB has already given to a contraction.

It matters because the failure is silent. Spanish written with the UEB tables produces cells a Spanish reader will read confidently and wrongly, and 18% of the 5,001 commonest Spanish words carry one of these letters — measured, not estimated. The Spanish alphabet and the Spanish translator use the Spanish tables.

Check your own text

Type anything into the translator with Grade 2 selected and this cell will appear wherever the rules allow it. The full contraction list shows the other eighteen, and Grade 1 versus Grade 2 explains when contracted braille is the right choice at all.