Shortform
“perhaps” in braille
Written p-e-r-h — 7 letters cut to 4 letters of abbreviation, then written in 3 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 1-2-5
Unicode ⠏⠻⠓ — 7 letters in 3 cells
How to recognise it
p-er-h, where the er is one cell. It takes -es, which no other shortform does — “perhapses” is a real enough word for the reference to have an opinion about it.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “perhaps” loses 3 letters — a, p, s — to become perh. Then it contracts again: er is a single cell, which is how 4 letters of abbreviation fit into 3 cells.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | perhaps | 7 cells |
| Abbreviated | perh | 4 letters |
| Written | 3 cells |
Endings it keeps
One English word begins with these letters, and the reference keeps the shortform in it. The one ending that survives is -es. Everything else is spelled out.
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| perhapses | -es | 5 cells |
What these 3 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2-3-4 | the letter p; the word “people” standing alone | |
| 1-2-4-5-6 | the letters er inside a word | |
| 1-2-5 | the letter h; the word “have” standing alone |
Check your own text
The translator writes “perhaps” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-three.
“perhaps” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: perh in 3 cells, not 7 letters.
