Topic 4.2: Five special common word-signs
In the previous topic, you learnt what is meant by upper word-signs. You also learnt about some letters which are used as simple upper word-signs. In this topic, you will learn about five commonly used Braille signs and what they stand for (REB, 2020).
The words ‘and’, ‘for’, ‘of’, ‘the’, and ‘with’ occur very frequently in English. In braille, they are represented by five special common word signs as follows:
One unique feature about these five word-signs is that where two or more of these words occur in succession and in the same phrase, the word-signs that express them are written adjoining one another (if in the same line of Braille) as if they were one word, that is to say without any space between them, in order to save space (Park, 1998).
So far, you have learnt the words represented by the letters of the alphabet and the five special common word signs. You should always bear in mind that using these word signs is governed by some rules which you must always follow.
