Dot number

Dots 3-6 in braille

Dots 3-6 is the hyphen. The raised positions are 3 and 6, out of the six a cell has.

Dots 3-6

Unicode ⠤ — U+2824, 1 dot on the left and 1 dot 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.

What dots 3-6 can mean
ReadingKindWhere it applies
the hyphenPunctuationBy position

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.

Dots 3-6 in ordinary words
WrittenIn braille
well-known
self-taught

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.

Dots 3-6 in each of the five codes
CodeWhat this cell is
Unified English Braillethe hyphen
Spanish braillethe mark -
Portuguese braillethe marks - and
Arabic brailleno reading of its own — see its alphabet
Hindi brailleno reading of its own — see its alphabet

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.

Cells one dot from 3-6
CellDotsWhat it is
3the apostrophe
6the capital letter sign; the capital word sign, written twice
1-3-6the letter u; the word “us” standing alone
2-3-6the word “his” standing alone; the question mark; opening double quote
3-4-6the letters ing inside a word
3-5-6the word “was” standing alone; closing double quote

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 3-6 as an image

The cell on its own: dots 3 and 6 filled, the other four positions shown empty — which is the part a description in words tends to leave out.

A braille cell with dots 3 and 6 raised, which in Unified English Braille is the hyphen.

Download the PNGCC BY 4.0.