Initial-letter contraction

“where” in braille

Two cells for the whole word, however long it is — 5 letters here, a saving of 3 cells. “where” is the 149th most common word in English.

Dots 5, then dots 1-5-6

Unicode ⠐⠱ — 5 letters in two cells

How to recognise it

Its second cell is the wh groupsign, shared with “whose”. Inside longer words it holds up well — anywhere, elsewhere and somewhere all keep it.

The second cell is the “wh” sign, not a w

You would expect a w. What follows the prefix is the wh groupsign, chosen for the shape of the word rather than its spelling. Nine of the thirty-three do this.

Learn it with its sister

“where” and “whose” 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.

The wh family
WordCellsPrefixCells saved
wheredots 53 cells
whosedots 4-53 cells

Where it may appear inside a longer word

Only at the start and in the middle and at the end and of a word. UEB allows these inside a longer word only where the letters keep their meaning, which spelling cannot decide, so this site settled it by counting: every English word containing “where”, checked against the reference, split by where the letters sat.

Longer words that keep it

3 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.

“where” inside longer words
WordIn braille (Grade 2)Grade 1Grade 2
anywhere8 cells5 cells
elsewhere9 cells6 cells
somewhere9 cells4 cells

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, time, under, work, young.

Check your own text

Type “where” into the translator with Grade 2 selected to see both cells, or take the full list.

“where” in braille as an image

Both cells as a picture: dot 5, then dots 1, 5 and 6 — the whole word in two cells rather than 5 letters.

"where" in braille: two cells, the first with dot 5 raised and the second with dots 1, 5 and 6.

Download the PNGCC BY 4.0.