Shortform
“tonight” in braille
Written t-n — 7 letters cut to 2 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 5 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 2-3-4-5, then dots 1-3-4-5
Unicode ⠞⠝ — 7 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
t-n, the fourth of the to- words. Seven letters in two cells, and the Shortforms List names no longer word for it, so beyond the plural it only ever writes the bare word.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “tonight” loses 5 letters — o, i, g, h, t — to become tn. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | tonight | 7 cells |
| Abbreviated | tn | 2 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Longer words that keep it
The Shortforms List (Rules of Unified English Braille, Appendix 1) names no longer word that keeps “tonight”. A longer word that is not on the list is spelled out. An added s keeps the cells as well: “tonights” is ⠞⠝⠎ (10.9.5).
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| tonights | -s | 3 cells |
Learn it with the to- words
This is one of 4 shortforms built to the same shape — a t, then one letter: today (td), together (tgr), tomorrow (tm).
What these 2 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 2-3-4-5 | the letter t; the word “that” standing alone | |
| 1-3-4-5 | the letter n; the word “not” 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 “tonight” 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 “tonight” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-five.
“tonight” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: tn in 2 cells, not 7 letters.
