Shortform
“perceive” in braille
Written p-e-r-c-v — 8 letters cut to 5 letters of abbreviation, then written in 4 cells. That is 4 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-2-3-4, then dots 1-2-4-5-6, then dots 1-4, then dots 1-2-3-6
Unicode ⠏⠻⠉⠧ — 8 letters in 4 cells
How to recognise it
p-er-c-v, four cells, the longest of the four -ceive words because the er takes a cell the others do not need.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “perceive” loses 3 letters — e, i, e — to become percv. Then it contracts again: er is a single cell, which is how 5 letters of abbreviation fit into 4 cells.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | perceive | 8 cells |
| Abbreviated | percv | 5 letters |
| Written | 4 cells |
Longer words that keep it
For “perceive” the Shortforms List (Rules of Unified English Braille, Appendix 1) names 10 longer words that keep it, among them perceived ⠏⠻⠉⠧⠙, perceiver ⠏⠻⠉⠧⠗, apperceive ⠁⠏⠏⠻⠉⠧, unperceive ⠥⠝⠏⠻⠉⠧, apperceived ⠁⠏⠏⠻⠉⠧⠙ and apperceiver ⠁⠏⠏⠻⠉⠧⠗. A longer word that is not on the list is spelled out. An added s keeps the cells as well: “perceives” is ⠏⠻⠉⠧⠎ (10.9.5).
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| perceives | -s | 5 cells | |
| perceived | -d | 5 cells | |
| perceiver | -r | 5 cells |
Words that only look like it
These begin with the same letters, are not on the Shortforms List, and are written out in full.
| Word | In braille | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| perceivedly | 9 cells | |
| perceivedness | 9 cells |
Learn it with the -ceive words
This is one of 4 shortforms built to the same shape — an opening cell, then c-v: conceive (concv), deceive (dcv), receive (rcv).
What these 4 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2-3-4 | the letter p; the word “people” standing alone | |
| 1-2-4-5-6 | the letters er inside a word | |
| 1-4 | the letter c; the word “can” standing alone | |
| 1-2-3-6 | the letter v; the word “very” standing alone |
In a whole book
In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (26,439 words), this contraction is never written: the word “perceive” does not occur in the book. It is one of 24, out of 182, that the story has no use for.
Check your own text
The translator writes “perceive” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-five.
“perceive” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: percv in 4 cells, not 8 letters.
