Letter 2 of 26
The letter B in braille
B is dots 1 and 2.
Dots 1-2
Unicode ⠃ — U+2803
How to recognise it
Dots 1 and 2 make a short vertical line down the left column. Feel for the line rather than counting dots — that is how fluent readers actually read.
How this cell is built
B is one of the ten base shapes of decade 1, built from dots 1, 2, 4 and 5 only. Every letter from k onwards is one of these ten with extra dots added.
Easily confused with
These letters differ from B by a single dot, which is where reading errors actually happen. Drill them against each other rather than in alphabetical order.
Practice words
Each word below starts with B, written in Grade 1 so every letter has its own cell.
boy
bag
bell
In Grade 2 this letter is also a word
Standing alone, B means “but”. Inside a longer word it is just the letter b. See the contraction reference for the full list.