Braille alphabet chart: every letter, number, and symbol

Bookmark this page. Below is the complete Braille alphabet, every letter, number, and most punctuation symbols you'll ever need, with the dot pattern for each. If you want to see how the patterns actually feel (or just type and convert), skip ahead to the online Braille converter.

How to read the cells

Each Braille character lives in a rectangular cell of 6 dots, arranged in 2 columns of 3. The dots are numbered like this:

1 4
2 5
3 6

When you see a cell written as dots 1-2-3 (⠉), it means the top-left, middle-left, and bottom-left dots are raised. That's the letter "c" in Braille. Easy.

Throughout this page we'll show the Braille pattern as a Unicode character (like ⠉) and as a dot-list (1-2-3) so you can learn both representations.

Letters A to Z

The English Braille alphabet maps directly: 'a' is dot 1, 'b' is dots 1-2, 'c' is dots 1-4, and so on. Here's the whole thing:

Letter	Braille	Dots
a	⠁	1
b	⠃	1-2
c	⠉	1-4
d	⠙	1-4-5
e	⠑	1-5
f	⠋	1-2-4
g	⠛	1-2-4-5
h	⠓	1-2-5
i	⠊	2-4
j	⠚	2-4-5
k	⠅	1-3
l	⠇	1-2-3
m	⠍	1-3-4
n	⠝	1-3-4-5
o	⠕	1-3-5
p	⠏	1-2-3-4
q	⠟	1-2-3-4-5
r	⠗	1-2-3-5
s	⠎	2-3-4
t	⠞	2-3-4-5
u	⠥	1-3-6
v	⠧	1-2-3-6
w	⠺	2-4-5-6
x	⠭	1-3-4-6
y	⠽	1-3-4-5-6
z	⠵	1-3-5-6

Numbers 0 to 9

Numbers in Braille piggyback on the first ten letters (a to j), prefixed with the number indicator (⠼, dots 3-4-5-6). Once you see the number indicator, the next cell is read as a digit:

Number	Braille	Notes
1	⠼⠁	number indicator + a
2	⠼⠃	number indicator + b
3	⠼⠉	number indicator + c
4	⠼⠙	number indicator + d
5	⠼⠑	number indicator + e
6	⠼⠋	number indicator + f
7	⠼⠛	number indicator + g
8	⠼⠓	number indicator + h
9	⠼⠊	number indicator + i
0	⠼⠚	number indicator + j

The number indicator is in effect until you hit a space, a letter, or another indicator. So "123" is five cells: ⠼⠁⠃⠉, not eight.

Punctuation

Most common punctuation has a single-cell symbol:

Punctuation	Braille	Dots
Period	⠲	2-5-6
Comma	⠂	2
Question mark	⠦	2-3-6
Exclamation mark	⠖	2-3-5
Semicolon	⠆	2-3
Colon	⠒	2-5
Hyphen	⠤	3-6
Apostrophe	⠄	3
Open quote	⠐⠦	two cells
Close quote	⠘	2-3-6 + 4-5-6

Grade 2 contractions (English)

In Grade 2 Braille, common words get shortened to a single cell. Here are the most frequent ones you'll see in everyday text:

Word	Braille	Notes
and	⠯	whole-word
for	⠿	whole-word
of	⠷	whole-word
the	⠮	whole-word (also this, there, these, those, their)
with	⠾	whole-word
but	⠆	whole-word + part-word
can	⠡	whole-word + part-word (also child, character, knowledge)
do	⠙	whole-word + part-word
every	⠾	whole-word + part-word (also just, with)
from	⠫	whole-word + part-word
go	⠛	whole-word + part-word
have	⠓	whole-word + part-word (the h sign)
just	⠾	whole-word + part-word (same as every)
knowledge	⠡	whole-word + part-word (same as can)
like	⠇	whole-word + part-word
more	⠍	whole-word + part-word
not	⠒	whole-word + part-word
people	⠏	whole-word + part-word
quite	⠟	whole-word + part-word
rather	⠗	whole-word + part-word
so	⠕	whole-word + part-word
that	⠞	whole-word + part-word
us	⠥	whole-word + part-word
very	⠧	whole-word + part-word
will	⠺	whole-word + part-word (the w sign)
it	⠭	whole-word + part-word
you	⠢	whole-word + part-word
as	⠁	whole-word + part-word
his	⠓	whole-word + part-word
in	⠊	whole-word + part-word
was	⠱	whole-word
shall	⠩	whole-word
out	⠳	whole-word
still	⠌	whole-word
which	⠱	whole-word (also where, was)

Curious why Grade 2 exists at all? Here's the full comparison.

Spanish, French, German accents

The base Latin alphabet is shared across Western European Braille systems. The main differences are accented letters and a few language-specific symbols:

Letter	Language	Braille
á	Spanish	⠷
é	Spanish, French	⠿
í	Spanish	⠻
ó	Spanish	⠳
ú	Spanish	⠾
ñ	Spanish	⠹
ü	Spanish, German	⠳
à	French	⠷
â	French	⠡
ç	French	⠯
è	French	⠮
ê	French	⠣
ë	French	⠫
î	French	⠩
ï	French	⠻
ô	French	⠹
ù	French	⠾
û	French	⠱
ä	German	⠜
ö	German	⠪
ß	German	⠮

To convert text in any of these languages with proper accented output, use the main converter, just pick your language from the dropdown and the accents map automatically.

Frequently asked questions

Why are there so few symbols if you have 63 dots to play with?

Because the 6-dot cell was chosen for a reason, every dot has to be distinguishable by touch, and packing more dots in a single cell makes them too small for fingertips. The International Union of Braille (and later UEB) decided 6 dots was the sweet spot.

How do you write capital letters in Braille?

A single capital is preceded by the capital indicator (⠠, dot 6). A whole-word capital (like an acronym) is preceded by a different indicator (⠠⠠, dot 6 twice). It's a quick, low-cost way to signal case without inventing a whole new set of symbols.

Is there a universal Braille chart for all languages?

Not really. Most languages have their own Braille system, but they share the 6-dot cell and many core symbols. Unified English Braille (UEB) is one standard for English-language countries, but Spanish uses a different standard, French has its own, and Asian scripts use multi-cell systems.

How can I practice these patterns?

Type a sentence into the converter, read the output aloud while tracing the patterns, then check your memory. Doing this for 15 minutes a day is enough to commit the alphabet to muscle memory in a couple of weeks.

If you want to understand why some letters use single-cell whole-word shortcuts and others don't, our Grade 1 vs Grade 2 comparison explains the trade-offs. And for the deeper backstory on how Louis Braille ended up designing the system, see the history of Braille.