Shortform
“would” in braille
Written w-d — 5 letters cut to 2 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 3 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 2-4-5-6, then dots 1-4-5
Unicode ⠺⠙ — 5 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
w-d, the third of the three modal shortforms. Its d is a plain letter where “should” needs the sh sign first, which is why would and could are two cells and should is two of a different kind.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “would” loses 3 letters — o, u, l — to become wd. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | would | 5 cells |
| Abbreviated | wd | 2 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Longer words that keep it
For “would” the Shortforms List (Rules of Unified English Braille, Appendix 1) names 11 longer words that keep it, among them woulda ⠺⠙⠁, 'twould ⠄⠞⠺⠙, wouldst ⠺⠙⠌, 'twoulda ⠄⠞⠺⠙⠁, would've ⠺⠙⠄⠧⠑ and wouldest ⠺⠙⠑⠌. A longer word that is not on the list is spelled out. An added s keeps the cells as well: “woulds” is ⠺⠙⠎ (10.9.5).
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| wouldest | -est | 4 cells |
Words that only look like it
wouldn't and would've are on the Shortforms List and keep the shortform: ⠺⠙⠝⠄⠞ and ⠺⠙⠄⠧⠑. Without the apostrophe the word is no longer the listed one, and the spellings below are written out in full.
| Word | In braille | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| wouldn | 5 cells | |
| wouldnt | 6 cells | |
| woulding | 5 cells |
Learn it with the modal shortforms
This is one of 3 shortforms built to the same shape — the opening sound, then a d: could (cd), should (shd).
What these 2 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 2-4-5-6 | the letter w; the word “will” standing alone | |
| 1-4-5 | the letter d; the word “do” standing alone |
In a whole book
In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (26,439 words), this contraction is written 91 times and saves 273 cells. That is 0.79% of everything Grade 2 saves in the book, and ranks it 35th of the 158 contractions used.
The words it is written in: would (78), wouldn't (13).
Check your own text
The translator writes “would” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-five.
“would” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: wd in 2 cells, not 5 letters.
