 This is multi-cell contractions in one lesson. Let's look at a word like instructions in Grade 1 Braille. That same word written in Grade 2 Braille takes up four less cells. One of the contractions used in this word is the partial word contraction, T-I-O-N. The first cell in this contraction lets the reader know that they are about to read a partial word contraction. The second cell tells them which partial word contraction it is. You'll notice that the first cell, however, is also the cell that is used to represent the letter's character. This is the character we saw in a previous video where we were writing out the phone number 393-INFO. However, when this cell is found in the middle of a word, it means you are about to read a partial word contraction. There are three cells just like this one. The other two are the capital letter sign and the italic letter sign. If these cells are found at the beginning of a word, they let you know to capitalize or italicize a word. But if they are found in the middle of a word, they represent a partial word contraction. There are also three cells on the bottom row that do the same thing except these cells are used to represent whole word contractions. Now let's take a look at all the possible partial and whole word contractions represented by all these cells starting with the partial word contractions. Let's move the bottom cells over and up and then shrink them. We'll add another cell next to them and then make a few copies of each. Let's then make some room for the letters they represent and then place those letters on the screen. You'll notice that the second cell in these partial word contractions is the same as the last letter in the partial word. Now these partial word contractions can only be used in the middle or at the end of a word. They can never be used at the beginning of a word. They can also never be used alone. So the L-E-S-S contraction can never be used to represent the word less. Now let's take a look at the two cell whole word contractions. So let's move these cells up, shrink them, and then add another cell next to them. Then let's make some copies of each and actually the set of cells on the left represent quite a few words. So we'll add another column of those cells. Now we'll make some room for the words these cells represent and then place those words on the screen. Now let's fill in the second cells and bold the letter or letters they represent. You'll notice two things now. With the whole word contractions the second cell often represents more than one letter such as the C-H in the word character or the T-H-E in the word there. Also the second cell in each contraction tells you what the first letter or letters of the word are, not the last like we saw with the partial word contractions. Now let's just focus on the whole word contractions. The words are in alphabetical order, but they still seem fairly random. So let's take away the cells and just look at the words themselves. Now let's group these words and see if we can't come up with some memory aids for them. So the first three words are character day ever. So we can think of these as though you've had a busy day acting in the theater and you say, I play the most characters in a day ever. So character day ever. Now the second group we can think of is the son of a devout Christian saying, my father is here and he knows the Lord and Mother Mary's name. Father here no Lord mother name. The next group split into two columns is one ought to get part of the question right. One ought part question right. The next group is fairly easy. Some friends are there through time. Some there through time. The final group in this series is the words under where work young. Under the sun is where I worked when I was young. Now the second set of contractions at the top right represent the words these, those upon whose word. These are those upon whose word we relied. The third and final set of whole word contractions is cannot had many spirit their world. They cannot have had many spirits in their world. Now let's put these back in place next to their two cell contractions. When you run across any of these contractions while you're reading Braille, you can first think, well which of the three cells does this contraction begin with? The five cell, the four five cell or the four five six cell. That will help you narrow down which of the memory aids to recall. If it's in the group with the four five cell or the four five six cell, these should be fairly easy to figure out since there are so few words in each. If it's in the first group though with the five cell, then it may take a little longer, but with some practice you'll be able to figure these out fairly quickly. Now one other note about these cells, they can be used as parts of larger words, such as using the word day as a part of the phrase happy birthday. Now let's take a look back for just a minute at the partial work contractions and see if we can come up with a memory aid for these as well. To do this we'll think of a travel brochure for Hong Kong. It begins with Experience Hong Kong with its wonderful tradition of happiness, enchantment and hospitality. It continues, the location is especially profound with romance and passion in endless amount. So now we've looked at all the two cell partial word and whole word contractions and how to memorize them. The first single word is the experience of happiness, enchantment and hospitality. The second single word is the experience of happiness, enchantment and hospitality. The third single word is the experience of happiness, enchantment and hospitality. There is one other type of multi-cell contraction though to look at, which is much easier to learn, abbreviated words. So let's look at a word like Braille written in grade one versus grade two. In grade two Braille we are simply abbreviating the word to BRL, which saves us four cells. There are dozens of acceptable abbreviations in Braille. For instance, the cells AB represent the word about, and the cells ACR represent the word across. Some of these words do include cells that represent more than one letter, such as the BE cell followed by C to represent the word because. Now as you read more and more Braille, you'll realize that these contractions are fairly easy to interpret in context. For instance, if you read the sentence, she is my best FR, then you would understand that the letters FR represent the word friend. Now let's look at the second page of abbreviated words, and some of these are a bit longer, such as the PERCVG contraction that represents the word perceiving. However, the more cells there are in an abbreviated word, the easier it is to figure out usually. Let's focus on the contraction QK that represents the word quick. Grade two Braille includes a lot of rules for how to write Braille, including one that allows abbreviated words to be used as parts of larger words, such as when you see the abbreviated word quick in the larger word quickest. We'll look at some more of these rules for writing Braille in our next video. But for now you've learned about multi-cell contractions in one lesson.