Reference
The braille alphabet
All 26 letters, each shown as a dot pattern with its dot numbers. Follow any letter for how it is constructed, which letters it is confused with, and what it means in Grade 2.
1a, dot 11-2b, dots 1 and 21-4c, dots 1 and 41-4-5d, dots 1, 4 and 51-5e, dots 1 and 51-2-4f, dots 1, 2 and 41-2-4-5g, dots 1, 2, 4 and 51-2-5h, dots 1, 2 and 52-4i, dots 2 and 42-4-5j, dots 2, 4 and 51-3k, dots 1 and 31-2-3l, dots 1, 2 and 31-3-4m, dots 1, 3 and 41-3-4-5n, dots 1, 3, 4 and 51-3-5o, dots 1, 3 and 51-2-3-4p, dots 1, 2, 3 and 41-2-3-4-5q, dots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 51-2-3-5r, dots 1, 2, 3 and 52-3-4s, dots 2, 3 and 42-3-4-5t, dots 2, 3, 4 and 51-3-6u, dots 1, 3 and 61-2-3-6v, dots 1, 2, 3 and 62-4-5-6w, dots 2, 4, 5 and 61-3-4-6x, dots 1, 3, 4 and 61-3-4-5-6y, dots 1, 3, 4, 5 and 61-3-5-6z, dots 1, 3, 5 and 6
Learn it as three groups, not 26 letters
Louis Braille built the alphabet from ten base shapes and then reused them. Learn decade 1 properly and you have effectively learned the other two, because each is the same ten shapes with dots added in a fixed place.
| Decade | Letters | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | abcdefghij | The ten base shapes, built from dots 1, 2, 4 and 5 only. |
| 2 | klmnopqrst | Decade 1 with dot 3 added to every cell. |
| 3 | uvxyz | Decade 2 with dots 3 and 6 added. |
w is the odd one out
w breaks the pattern. Louis Braille built the code for French, which had no letter w, so w was added later and does not follow decade 3. It is dots 2-4-5-6.