Shortform
“should” in braille
Written s-h-d — 6 letters cut to 3 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 4 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-4-6, then dots 1-4-5
Unicode ⠩⠙ — 6 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
sh-d, where the sh is one cell that also means the word “shall”. “shoulder” is the standard example of what this rule must not do — it is not “should” plus an er, and the reference spells it out.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “should” loses 3 letters — o, u, l — to become shd. Then it contracts again: sh is a single cell, which is how 3 letters of abbreviation fit into 2 cells.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | should | 6 cells |
| Abbreviated | shd | 3 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Endings it keeps
Of the 11 English words that begin with these letters, the reference keeps the shortform in 2 of them. The one ending that survives is -est. Everything else is spelled out.
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| shouldest | -est | 4 cells |
Words that only look like it
Nine words begin with these letters — six of them the shoulder family, three of them spellings of “should not”. Each begins with the same letters and is written out in full.
| Word | In braille | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| shoulder | 5 cells | |
| shoulders | 6 cells | |
| shouldering | 6 cells |
Learn it with the modal shortforms
This is one of 3 shortforms built to the same shape — the opening sound, then a d — and the set is far quicker learned together than one word at a time: could (cd), would (wd).
What these 2 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1-4-6 | the letters sh inside a word, and the word “shall” alone | |
| 1-4-5 | the letter d; the word “do” standing alone |
Check your own text
The translator writes “should” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-three.
“should” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: shd in 2 cells, not 6 letters.
