It has been quite an interesting journey learning Braille. I started about 5/6 weeks ago and am already learning and practicing the last six alphabets. In 5 weeks I have learned so much and I am glad to say you can learn Braille in 5 weeks depending on you and time available to study. I will advise you need to practice daily so you don’t forget all you have learned.
This week I had so many things to read and practice but I was so happy it is just six more alphabets left to learn so I was super eager to quickly learn and practice the letters so I can move on to the punctuation, capital letters, and numbers this week as well. Once I have completed learning and practicing the alphabet, braille punctuation, capital letters, and numbers, I am on my way to reading full sentences next week and writing words and sentences.
So, I started off by refreshing letters A to T and it went smoothly. I used the Braille Academy app on my iPhone to practice and I passed the challenges. Unfortunately, I thought I took a picture of my congratulatory message that I passed the challenge, but I just could not find the picture in my photos. I also took the test your knowledge with our braille alphabet fun quiz! on How the braille alphabet works – Perkins School for the Blind and i scored 23/26. I don’t think its too bad for a beginner like me.
Lets quickly dive into the last 6 letters. Its going to be easier to learn because its just 6 instead of 10.
Braille letters u – z
The Braille letters from U to Z, with the exception of ‘W’, follow a logical progression similar to the previous sets, but with an added twist.
Method 1: In this group, each letter is formed by adding dots 3 and 6 to the configurations of the first five letters, A to E.
- W: Dots 2, 4, 5, and 6 (not following the above logic)
- A w has dot 2 on the left side, and dots 4, 5, and 6 on the right side.
This continuity in design demonstrates the systematic and efficient nature of the Braille language.
However, there’s a unique historical note about the letter ‘W’. When Louis Braille, the creator of the Braille system, designed this code in 1824, the letter ‘W’ was not part of the French alphabet, his native language. As a result, ‘W’ deviates from this pattern.
Here are the Braille codes for the Braille letters U to Z:
- U: Dots 1, 3, and 6
- V: Dots 1, 2, 3, and 6
- W: Dots 2, 4, 5, and 6
- X: Dots 1, 3, 4, and 6
- Y: Dots 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6
- Z: Dots 1, 3, 5, and 6
- Method 2 : Adding dot 6 to form u, v, x, y, and z. For the remaining letters (except w), take the k through o and add dot 6. Leave the letter w out completely, as it doesn’t fit the pattern all the other letters do.
- The letter u has dot 1 and 3 from letter k, plus dot 6. The letter v has dots 1, 2, and 3 from letter l, plus dot 6.
- Since you’re skipping w for now, the next letter is x, which has dots 1, 3, and 4 from letter m, plus dot 6. The letter y has dots 1, 3, 4, and 5 from letter n, plus dot 6. The letter z has dots 1, 3, and 5 from letter o, plus dot 6.
Braille Capital letters
Braille doesn’t have a separate alphabet of capital letters like standard print. These are all of the lower case braille letters in the English alphabet. There’s a “code” that tells the reader the next letter is capitalized. That “code” is a dot-6. To form a capital letter, you must place a dot 6 before the letter. And, if you want to capitalize an entire word, you put 2 dot-6’s in front of the word.
Braille Punctuation
Braille incorporates a variety of punctuation marks, each represented by unique combinations of raised dots. These punctuation marks are essential for understanding the context and meaning of written Braille texts. Here are some of the main punctuation marks in Braille:
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- Period: Dots 2, 5, and 6
- Comma: Dot 2
- Question Mark: Dots 2, 3, 5, and 6
- Exclamation Mark: Dots 2, 3, and 5
- Colon: Dots 2, 5
- Semicolon: Dots 2, 3, and 6
- Quotation Marks (Opening and Closing): Dots 2, 3, 5 (used at both the beginning and end of a quotation)
- Apostrophe: Dot 3
- Hyphen: Dots 3 and 6
The Braille code for the first 10 letters of the alphabet is also used to create the most common punctuation marks you’ll find in literary writing. The same code is simply dropped down to the lower part of the cell.[5]
- A Braille comma has dot 2. You can also think of this as a letter a dropped down one line.
- A Braille semicolon has dots 2 and 3. This is the letter b dropped down one line. A Braille colon has dots 2 and 5.
- A Braille period has dots 2, 5, and 6. The Braille period is also used as a decimal point. If there are 3 Braille periods together, they represent an ellipsis.
- An exclamation mark has dots 2,3, and 5, while a question mark has dots 2, 3, and 6.
- Quotation marks have 2 cells. The first represents whether they are single or double, and the second whether they are opening or closing. For single quotation marks, the first cell has dot 6. For double quotation marks, the first cell has dots 3 and 4. Opening quotation marks have dots 2, 3, and 6 (note that this is identical to a question mark). Closing quotation marks have dots 3, 5, and 6.
- The Braille numbers
Braille Numbers
As we transition from the Braille alphabet to Braille numbers, you’ll find the learning curve pleasantly gentle. The numbers 0 through 9 in Braille are ingeniously mapped to the same configurations as the letters A through J.
The key to distinguishing numbers from letters in Braille is the use of a special “Braille number sign.” This sign, which might vary slightly depending on the language, is placed before the Braille characters for A to J to indicate that these characters are to be read as numbers.
The Braille number sign is typically represented by the combination of dots 3, 4, 5, and 6. When this sign precedes any of the first ten letters of the Braille alphabet, it transforms them into numbers. For example, the Braille symbol for the letter A (dot 1) becomes the number 1 when it is preceded by the number sign.
Here’s how each number is represented in Braille:
- 1: Number sign followed by dot 1 (A)
- 2: Number sign followed by dots 1 and 2 (B)
- 3: Number sign followed by dots 1 and 4 (C)
- 4: Number sign followed by dots 1, 4, and 5 (D)
- 5: Number sign followed by dots 1 and 5 (E)
- 6: Number sign followed by dots 1, 2, and 4 (F)
- 7: Number sign followed by dots 1, 2, 4, and 5 (G)
- 8: Number sign followed by dots 1, 2, and 5 (H)
- 9: Number sign followed by dots 2 and 4 (I)
- 0: Number sign followed by dots 2, 4, and 5 (J)
Hi Olawanle,
I am surprised that you are able to learn braille online. I always thought that because it has to do with touch, you would need physical sheets to practice. You seem to have learned alot about this language in just 5 weeks! I also enjoyed that you broke down how each letter, number, and punctuation was made in braille.
I never knew that the creator of braille was French, nor did I know that the French language does not use the letter W. I like that you included some fun facts about the language.
I am excited to see what you learn over the next week!
Thanks, Hailey for taking the time to read my post.