Almost all literary Braille codes use contractions to decrease space and increase reading speed. The contractions presented here are used in the US literary Braille code.
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Whole words contracted into a single letter
Almost all letters of the alphabet, when written separately, stand for whole words. Most of the words assigned to each letter are chosen acrophonically, that is, a letter will stand for a word that begins with that letter; the only two exceptions are "X" and "Z".
| Braille | Print letter | Word |
| ⠃ | B | but |
| ⠉ | C | can |
| ⠙ | D | do |
| ⠑ | E | every |
| ⠋ | F | from |
| ⠛ | G | go |
| ⠓ | H | have |
| ⠚ | J | just |
| ⠅ | K | knowledge |
| ⠇ | L | like |
| ⠍ | M | more |
| ⠝ | N | not |
| ⠏ | P | people |
| ⠟ | Q | quite |
| ⠗ | R | rather |
| ⠎ | S | so |
| ⠞ | T | that |
| ⠥ | U | us |
| ⠧ | V | very |
| ⠺ | W | will |
| ⠭ | X | it |
| ⠽ | Y | you |
| ⠵ | Z | as |
Whole words with separate symbols
There are five symbols that stand for whole words in and of themselves. These symbols can also be used as parts of larger words where that string of letters occurs; for example, the word "sand" would be written as "s"+"and": "⠎⠯"
| Braille | word |
| ⠯ | and |
| ⠿ | for |
| ⠷ | of |
| ⠮ | the |
| ⠾ | with |
Letter combinations with separate symbols
Many common digraphs are given separate symbols. Also, like individual letters, these symbols may stand for whole words when written in isolation. Again, most of these words are chosen acrophonically.
| Braille | Word | |
| ⠡ | CH | child |
| ⠣ | GH | |
| ⠩ | SH | shall |
| ⠹ | TH | this |
| ⠱ | WH | which |
| ⠫ | ED | |
| ⠻ | ER | |
| ⠳ | OU | out |
| ⠪ | OW | |
| ⠢ | EN | enough |
| ⠔ | IN | in |
| ⠌ | ST | still |
| ⠬ | ING | |
| ⠜ | AR |
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Contractions using an escape character and a letter
Many contractions use an indicator symbol, most commonly a dot or combination of dots located on the right side of the cell, plus a letter to indicate common suffixes such as "-less", "-ness", and "-tion"; as well as whole words.
Whole words contracted into two or more letters
Many common words are contracted to two or three letters. Unlike print abbreviations, however, they are not accompanied by any punctuation indicating that they are abbreviations, indeed, that would defeat the purpose of such contractions, merely taking up more space. Some of these contractions contain other contractions.
Bibliography
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| Word | Braille | |
| about | ab | ⠁⠃ |
| above | abv | ⠁⠃⠧ |
| according | ac | ⠁⠉ |
| across | acr | ⠁⠉⠗ |
| afternoon | afn | ⠁⠋⠝ |
| after | af | ⠁⠋ |
| afterword | afw | ⠁⠋⠺ |
| again | ag | ⠁⠛ |
| against | ag(st) | ⠁⠛⠌ |
| almost | alm | ⠁⠇⠍ |
| already | alr | ⠁⠇⠗ |
| also | al | ⠁⠇ |
| although | al(th) | ⠁⠇⠹ |
| altogether | alt | ⠁⠇⠞ |
| always | alw | ⠁⠇⠺ |
| because | (be)c | ⠆⠉ |
| before | (be)f | ⠆⠋ |
| behind | (be)h | ⠆⠓ |
| below | (be)l | ⠆⠇ |
| beneath | (be)n | ⠆⠝ |
| beside | (be)s | ⠆⠎ |
| between | (be)t | ⠆⠞ |
| beyond | (be)y | ⠆⠽ |
| blind | bl | ⠃⠇ |
| braille | brl | ⠃⠗⠇ |
| children | (ch)n | ⠡⠝ |
| conceive | (con)cv | ⠒⠉⠧ |
| conceiving | (con)cvg | ⠒⠉⠧⠛ |
| could | cd | ⠉⠙ |
