Dot number
Dots 3-4-5-6 in braille
Dots 3-4-5-6 is the number sign. The raised positions are 3, 4, 5 and 6, out of the six a cell has.
Dots 3-4-5-6
Unicode ⠼ — U+283C, 1 dot on the left and 3 dots on the right
What this cell is
This cell has a single job, which is unusual: most of the sixty-three carry more than one.
| Reading | Kind | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| the number sign | Indicator | Turns the following letters a-j into the digits 1-9 and 0. |
Where you will meet it
The frequency list this site measures against is five thousand plain lowercase words, so it contains no example of this cell at all. These are written out instead, and rendered by the same translator as everything else here.
| Written | In braille |
|---|---|
| 2026 | |
| chapter 4 |
The same cell in the other codes
Braille is not one code. This site publishes five, and they do not put this cell to the same use. Text written with one table and read with another does not come out as an accent or two — it comes out as different words.
| Code | What this cell is |
|---|---|
| Unified English Braille | the number sign |
| Spanish braille | the number sign |
| Portuguese braille | the number sign |
| Arabic braille | the number sign |
| Hindi braille | the letter ण, and the number sign |
In UEB this cell is the number sign. In Hindi, the letter ण. Spanish has seven letters outside a-z and Portuguese has thirteen, each a single cell where UEB spends three, and every one of them lands on a cell UEB had already given to something else. That is why the codes cannot be mixed, and it is the part no chart shows you.
One dot away
Under the fingers a missed or imagined dot turns this cell into 6 others. These are the ones to check against when a word will not resolve.
| Cell | Dots | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 3-4-5 | the letters ar inside a word | |
| 3-4-6 | the letters ing inside a word | |
| 3-5-6 | the word “was” standing alone; closing double quote | |
| 4-5-6 | the opening cell of 6 initial-letter contractions | |
| 1-3-4-5-6 | the letter y; the word “you” standing alone | |
| 2-3-4-5-6 | the letters with inside a word, and the word “with” alone |
Look up something else
The dot picker takes any combination of the six, the decoder reads a whole passage back, and the chart runs the other way, from the letter to the dots.
Dots 3-4-5-6 as an image
The cell on its own: dots 3, 4, 5 and 6 filled, the other two positions shown empty — which is the part a description in words tends to leave out.
