Dot number
Dots 3-4-5 in braille
Dots 3-4-5 is the letters ar inside a word. The raised positions are 3, 4 and 5, out of the six a cell has.
Dots 3-4-5
Unicode ⠜ — U+281C, 1 dot on the left and 2 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 letters ar inside a word | Groupsign | Inside a word, and alone where noted |
Where you will meet it
Taken from the five thousand commonest English words in frequency order, so the first one is a word you will meet constantly. Each is drawn in Grade 2, where the cell actually appears.
| Word | In braille | How common |
|---|---|---|
| are | 18th commonest | |
| search | 39th commonest | |
| year | 106th commonest | |
| software | 143rd commonest |
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 letters ar inside a word |
| Spanish braille | the mark ) |
| Portuguese braille | the letter ã |
| Arabic braille | the letter آ |
| Hindi braille | the letter आ, and the matra for आ |
In UEB this cell is the letters ar inside a word. In Portuguese, the letter ã — and in Arabic, the letter آ — and in Hindi, the letter आ. 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 | the letters st inside a word, and the word “still” alone | |
| 3-5 | the letters in inside a word; the word “in” standing alone | |
| 4-5 | the opening cell of 5 initial-letter contractions | |
| 1-3-4-5 | the letter n; the word “not” standing alone | |
| 2-3-4-5 | the letter t; the word “that” standing alone | |
| 3-4-5-6 | the number sign |
Look up something else
The braille dot numbers page 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 as an image
The cell on its own: dots 3, 4 and 5 filled, the other three positions shown empty — which is the part a description in words tends to leave out.
