Initial-letter contraction
“those” in braille
Two cells for the whole word, however long it is — 5 letters here, a saving of 3 cells. “those” is the 224th most common word in English.
Dots 4-5, then dots 1-4-5-6
Unicode ⠘⠹ — 5 letters in two cells
How to recognise it
The dots 4-5 prefix with the th groupsign, and the one contraction on this list that is barred from longer words that do contain it. Nineteen dictionary words hold these five letters, and a transcriber spells them out in every one.
The second cell is the “th” sign, not a t
You would expect a t. What follows the prefix is the th groupsign, chosen for the shape of the word rather than its spelling. Nine of the thirty-three do this.
Learn it with its sister
“those” and “through” are written with the same second cell. Only the prefix separates them, which means the hard work of telling them apart is done by one cell — and learning them as a set is far quicker than meeting them one at a time.
| Word | Cells | Prefix | Cells saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| those | dots 4-5 | 3 cells | |
| through | dots 5 | 5 cells |
Where it may appear inside a longer word
Nowhere. Inside another word these letters are just letters; the contraction is used only when “those” stands alone.
You will meet it as a word, not a fragment
That makes it unusual. Some on this list earn most of their keep buried in longer words — “part” turns up in nineteen of them — but this is not one of those. What it does have is the word itself: ranked 224th in English, you will meet “those” standing on its own often enough to want the two cells rather than the 5 letters spelled out.
The other 4 words under dots 4-5
A small group, so the prefix is already a strong clue.
Check your own text
Type “those” into the translator with Grade 2 selected to see both cells, or take the full list.
“those” in braille as an image
Both cells as a picture: dots 4 and 5, then dots 1, 4, 5 and 6 — the whole word in two cells rather than 5 letters.
