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In this session, we begin the study of part-word contractions. There are over 70 contractions that see "action" as parts of words. Many of these contractions also have use as whole-word contractions.
In general, the rules for part-word contractions are slightly more difficult than those for whole-word contractions. The biggest difficulty for new (and experienced) braillists is the difficulties with breaks in syllables. At this point it might be useful to repeat some advice given earlier:
You cannot be a good braillist without owning a well-used quality dictionary.
In addition to following the rules about use of part-word contractions between syllables, there are also on occasion rules about following pronunciation rules when making decisions about the use of contractions.
A list of typical problem words is available for your use from this page and from the main braille page. This alphabetized list provides you with some of the more challenging words found in braille, with parentheses used to show how these words should be brailled.
Like whole-word contractions, there exist several categories or groups of part-word contractions. Each group has similarities to all part-word contractions (regarding rules) as well as their own idiosyncrasies. The groups are:
- Major contractions: and, for, of, the, with
- General part-word contractions: ch, sh, th, wh, ou, and st
- Prefix/suffix contractions: ar, ed, er, gh, ow, ble, ing
Each of these general groups is discussed in more detail in this session.
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