 This is Braille Numbers, capital letters, and italics in one lesson. Starting where we left off in the last video, the top row of letters, a through j, is also used to represent numbers 1 through 9 plus 0. This is done by adding a special character before the letters that lets you know to read them as numbers. So let's add a gray column for this and a few other special characters that do not fit the same pattern of raised dots as letters a through j. The numbers character looks like a backwards L, so you can think of it as turning letters into numbers. The numbers character will come after a space at the beginning of a set of numbers, but if it is found at the end of a word, it is considered to be a contraction, representing the letters B, L, E. Now the numbers sign can be terminated by a space, but it can also be terminated by the letters sign. This sign is used when you have letters and numbers appearing together, and you need to differentiate which cells you should consider numbers and which cells you should consider letters. We'll look at an example of this in just a minute. The third cell down in our gray column is the capital sign. This cell is placed before a letter that you wish to capitalize, such as the first word in the sentence or the first letter in someone's name. If two capital signs are placed together, then you would consider the entire word that follows as capitalized. Finally, the last cell in our gray column is the italic sign, which also doubles as the decimal point when used with numbers. Let's look at a few examples of how to use these four new characters. First, let's take the number sign and look at an example of a phone number. In this case, we have the number sign, followed by C, I, C, and then a hyphen, which does not terminate the effects of the number sign, and then D, F, C, F. To translate these letters into numbers, we have to think where in the alphabet these letters appear. The C is the third letter in the alphabet, so it represents the number three. The I is the ninth letter in the alphabet, so it represents the number nine, and so on. Well, what if this were a phone number where the last four digits were letters instead of numbers, such as three, nine, three, info? Well, let's remove the last four cells, and then after the hyphen, we would include the letter sign that we looked at earlier, and then we would put the corresponding letters for the word info. In this way, we can see how the numbers and letters can be read interchangeably without the need for a space in between them. Now, figuring out where each letter is in the alphabet can get tedious. So it would be much easier for us if we could come up with a way to quickly recall the number that is associated with each letter, A through J. So let's try and see if we can't come up with a memory aid for each letter. For instance, if we can remember that A is one, we could think of A1 steak sauce, and B is two, so we could think of a B2 bomber. B is three, just like the Star Wars character, C3PO. D4 sounds like the word deforest. E as five is a little harder, but we can think of the TV show Hawaii E50. F6 is just like the jet fighter, the F16. Now, GS7 is also a little harder, but we can think of it as if we are watching Lady Luck play craps in a casino. A seven wins in craps, and she just keeps rolling them, so we get a little bored with it and say, G7 again. H is eight, and if you spell those out, you get the word height. I is nine, and in California there is a proposed interstate called I9, so let's use that. J is zero, or O, so we could think of J and O as the name Joe. There we go. That's all the letters A through J and their corresponding numbers. Now, let's look at another number's example and try to translate it using our new memory aids. The first thing we'll need to do when we come across a set of braille numbers is figure out which of the letters A through J that they look like. So let's first think back to the story from our grade one braille video about crossing a river. Well, the first letter in our example looks like the fuel sign from our story, so that must be the letter F. But which number in the alphabet is associated with F? Well, if we think back to the memory aids we just learned, F is the F16 jet fighter, so F is six. Now let's look at the next cell. Well, that looks like the Harley rider from our story, so it must be the cell for the letter H. H in our memory aids was, it was the word height, or H8, so that is the number eight. The final cell in our example looks like, that's the ignition switch from our story, so that's the letter I. And I from our memory aids was I9, the proposed interstate in California. So that cell is the number nine. So these memory aids give us a good idea of how we can quickly recall numbers when we're reading braille. So now let's take a look at how the capital sign works. As mentioned earlier, when there is only one capital sign, it only capitalizes the very next letter, such as the letter D in the name David. However, if you put two capital signs together, they capitalize the entire word that follows, such as when you want to capitalize all three letters in USA. In fact, if we look back to our earlier example of the phone number, we could actually capitalize the word info by adding two capital signs after the letter sign, just like this. So now let's look at the italic sign. The italic sign is different than the capital sign in that one italic sign will cause an entire word to be italicized, such as for the title of the play, Hamlet. Now if you want to italicize four or more words in a row, it does get a little tricky. What you'll do is use two italic signs together to let the reader know that all words from here on out are considered italicized until you tell them differently. So for instance, if you were to write the phrase, the house of representatives, you would put two italic signs before the first word and then one italic sign before the last word. This way, when the reader comes across that last italic sign, they know that they are about to read the final italicized word in that phrase. So let's add back the 50 cells that we learned about in the previous video. And now in the next video, we'll take a look at punctuation marks, as well as the other 10 Braille cells that we haven't looked at so far. So this has been Braille numbers, capital letters, and italics in one lesson.