Numbers
The number 1 in braille
1 is the number sign followed by the letter a — dot 1.
Number sign + a
Dots 3-4-5-6, then dots 1
Why it uses a letter
The first ten letters of the alphabet double as the ten digits. a is letter 1 of the alphabet, so after a number sign it reads as 1. Without the number sign the same cell is simply the letter a — see A in braille.
1 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.
1
11
100
1 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 June | a space ends the number | |
| 1.5 | a decimal point does not — no second number sign | |
| 1cm | c is a digit letter, so it takes the letter sign — without it these cells read as “13m” | |
| 1kg | 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.
1 in braille as an image
Both cells as a picture: the number sign, then the letter a at dots 1 — which is what 1 actually looks like written out.
