Numbers
The number 0 in braille
0 is the number sign followed by the letter j — dots 2, 4 and 5.
Number sign + j
Dots 3-4-5-6, then dots 2-4-5
Why it uses a letter
Zero is the one digit that breaks the obvious pattern. The digits run a=1 through i=9, which uses up the first nine letters, so zero takes the tenth letter, j. It is the commonest slip when learning numbers: reading the j-cell as 10 rather than 0.
0 inside larger numbers
A number sign covers the whole run of digits that follows it, so these examples each use one indicator regardless of length.
0
10
000
0 in everyday writing
The same digit behaves differently depending on what follows it. These four are the contexts it actually turns up in, and the third and fourth are where mistakes happen.
| Written | In braille | What the cells do |
|---|---|---|
| 0 June | a space ends the number | |
| 0.5 | a decimal point does not — no second number sign | |
| 0cm | c is a digit letter, so it takes the letter sign — without it these cells read as “03m” | |
| 0kg | k is not a digit letter, so nothing extra is needed |
The rule behind all four — what opens a numeric run, what keeps it open and what closes it — is set out once on the numbers page, rather than repeated for every digit.
0 in braille as an image
Both cells as a picture: the number sign, then the letter j at dots 2-4-5 — which is what 0 actually looks like written out.
