Initial-letter contraction
“time” in braille
Two cells for the whole word, however long it is — 4 letters here, a saving of 2 cells. “time” is 50th in the 5,000-word frequency list this site measures against.
Dots 5, then dots 2-3-4-5
Unicode ⠐⠞ — 4 letters in two cells
How to recognise it
50th in the 5,000-word frequency list, and one that keeps its contraction inside sometimes, lifetime and anytime. The second cell is a t.
The second cell is the letter t
The second cell is the word's own first letter — the simpler half of this list. The other nine use a groupsign instead.
Where it may appear inside a longer word
The rulebook uses it inside a longer word only where the letters are said like the word “time” (Rules of Unified English Braille 10.7.8).
Whether the letters sound like the word “time” is not something a translator can read off the spelling, so this site uses the sign wherever the letters occur, except in the words the rulebook itself writes without it — altimeter, centime, centimeter, Mortimer, multimedia and sentiment — and the same words with an ending added. This site also leaves it out of presentiment, sentimental, sentimentality, Latimer, Lattimer and centimetre, which the rulebook does not name but which follow the same rule; liblouis 3.39.0 writes them the same way.
From the rulebook's own examples, as this site writes them. With the sign: sometimes ⠐⠎⠐⠞⠎; untimely ⠥⠝⠐⠞⠇⠽; daytime ⠐⠙⠐⠞. Without it: Mortimer ⠠⠍⠕⠗⠞⠊⠍⠻; altimeter ⠁⠇⠞⠊⠍⠑⠞⠻; centime ⠉⠢⠞⠊⠍⠑.
As with every contraction, it is not used where its letters would reach across the join between the parts of a compound word (10.11).
Updated 27 September 2026. Until 18 September this section gave the positions — start, middle, end — where the sign agreed with the reference translator more often than not, and the translator followed those. It follows the rule above now; the survey explains what changed and why.
Longer words that keep it
4 words among the 5,000 commonest in English are written with this contraction inside them. These are some of them, and every one was taken from this site's own output rather than chosen by hand.
| Word | In braille (Grade 2) | Grade 1 | Grade 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| times | 5 cells | 3 cells | |
| sometimes | 9 cells | 5 cells | |
| lifetime | 8 cells | 6 cells | |
| anytime | 7 cells | 5 cells |
Where this site differs from a transcriber
A transcriber writes “multimedia” without this contraction — the letters are there, but they are not said like the word “time”. This site writes it the same way. The coverage note gives the measured accuracy.
The other 21 words under dots 5
The largest of the three prefix groups, so the prefix itself tells you little — the second cell does the work.
character, day, ever, father, here, know, lord, mother, name, one, ought, part, question, right, some, there, through, under, where, work, young.
In a whole book
In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (26,439 words), this contraction is written 82 times and saves 164 cells. That is 0.48% of everything Grade 2 saves in the book, and ranks it 53rd of the 158 contractions used.
The words it is written in: time (71), times (6), sometimes (5).
Check your own text
Type “time” into the translator with Grade 2 selected to see both cells, or take the full list.
“time” in braille as an image
Both cells as a picture: dot 5, then dots 2, 3, 4 and 5 — the whole word in two cells rather than 4 letters.
