I Love You in Braille: Names and Phrases

I love you in braille is ⠠⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽: a capital sign, the letter I, a space, love spelled out, a space, and the single letter y, which in contracted braille stands for the whole word you. That is how it appears in Unified English Braille (UEB) grade 2, the form English-speaking braille readers use every day. Spelled out letter by letter, in grade 1, it is ⠠⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥.

Below you will find both versions cell by cell, the phrases people look up most, how to write any name, twenty popular names already done, and a short list of things to check before anything gets engraved. If you only want your own name, type it into our braille translator and switch between grade 1 and grade 2.

Key points

• I love you is 9 cells in grade 2 and 11 in grade 1, counting the spaces. The difference is you, which grade 2 writes as ⠽.
• A capital letter is marked with the capital indicator, dot 6 (⠠), placed right before it. A name takes one, before the first letter.
• English braille is usually contracted (grade 2): some groups of letters take a single cell. That applies to names too. Charlotte is 8 cells, not 10.
• A word written entirely in capitals starts with two capital indicators (⠠⠠). Three or more words in capitals start with three and close with ⠠⠄.
• An accented letter such as the é in José is written with an accent sign followed by the plain letter, not as a letter of its own.
• In the US, signs covered by the ADA must use contracted (grade 2) braille. For anything permanent, ask a certified transcriber and a braille reader first.

"I love you" in braille, cell by cell

Here is the grade 2 version, the one a braille reader expects:

Two things are worth noticing. First, I needs a capital sign but love and you do not, exactly as in print. Braille has no capital letters of its own: the capital indicator warns that the next letter is a capital, the way the Shift key does on a keyboard.

Second, you is the letter y on its own. In grade 2, most letters of the alphabet double as whole words when they stand alone: y is you, b is but, c is can, l is like. They are called alphabetic wordsigns, and the whole list is in braille contractions. The letter I stays I, because it is already a word.

In grade 1, you spell every letter: ⠠⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥. Both are correct braille. The next section explains which one to pick.

Grade 1 or grade 2: which one should you use?

Grade 1 (uncontracted) writes one cell per print letter. It is what beginners learn first and what is easiest to check against a chart. Grade 2 (contracted) is the standard form of English braille: books, magazines, menus and signs are written in it, and it is what an experienced reader expects to feel.

Use this rule of thumb:

• For someone who reads braille, use grade 2. It is how they read every day.
• For a gift, card or craft that a sighted person will decode with a chart, grade 1 is easier to follow, and it is still real braille.
• For a sign, in the United States, the choice is made for you: the 2010 ADA Standards state in section 703.3 that "Braille shall be contracted (Grade 2)".

If you are not sure, ask the person who will read it. Many readers learned grade 2 and read grade 1 without trouble, but it is their call.

Phrases people look up in braille

All in lower case, so no capital signs. The last column explains where grade 2 saves space.

Friends forever is the most dramatic case: 15 cells in grade 1, 7 in grade 2. Friends is a shortform, written as the letters fr plus s, and forever is the one-cell contraction for for followed by the two-cell contraction for ever. That is also why grade 2 cannot be read with a letter chart alone: you need to know the contractions.

How to write a name in braille

Put the capital indicator, dot 6 (⠠), in front of the first letter, then write each letter in its own cell. In grade 2, replace any letter groups that have a contraction. That is the whole rule.

Here is Charlotte in grade 2, where two contractions apply:

The result is ⠠⠡⠜⠇⠕⠞⠞⠑, 8 cells. In grade 1, Charlotte is ⠠⠉⠓⠁⠗⠇⠕⠞⠞⠑, 10 cells: the capital sign plus nine letters.

20 popular names in braille

Twenty common first names in English-speaking countries, each shown in grade 1 and grade 2. The cell count is for grade 2 and includes the capital sign. If yours is not here, the translator writes any name.

Most names come out identical in both grades, because they contain none of the letter groups that have a contraction. The ones that change are worth a closer look.

Why some names are shorter in grade 2

In contracted braille, some groups of letters are written with a single cell wherever they appear, including inside names. These are the ones that show up most often in names:

The best example is a pair from the table above. Sophia has no contraction, but Sofia does: its letters o and f spell the word of, which has its own cell, ⠷. So Sofia is ⠠⠎⠷⠊⠁ in grade 2, 5 cells. The two names sound the same and are written differently, in print and in braille.

This is also why a name copied from a letter chart may not match what a braille reader expects. A chart gives you grade 1. If the person reads grade 2, Oliver ends in the one-cell er, ⠻, and Henry has the one-cell en, ⠢.

Names in all capitals

When a whole word is in capitals, you do not put a capital sign before every letter. Two capital signs at the start of the word make the whole word capital:

For three or more words in capitals, as in I LOVE YOU, UEB uses a capitals passage: three capital signs at the start (⠠⠠⠠) and a terminator at the end (⠠⠄). This matters because engraved jewelry and plaques are often in capitals. Writing a capital sign before every letter is the most common mistake on homemade braille.

On a sign, the ADA goes further: capitals are only marked "before the first word of sentences, proper nouns and names, individual letters of the alphabet, initials, and acronyms" (section 703.3.1). A door sign that says RESTROOM in print does not say it in capitals in braille.

Names with accents

UEB writes an accented letter as two parts: an accent sign, then the plain letter. The acute accent of é is ⠘⠌, and the diaeresis of ë is ⠘⠒.

Spanish braille does it differently. There, é is a single cell of its own, and the capital sign is dots 4 and 6 instead of dot 6, so José is ⠨⠚⠕⠎⠮. Same name, different braille, because braille codes belong to languages. If the name is going to a Spanish-speaking reader, see the Spanish braille alphabet, and for why codes differ, braille in other languages.

Before you engrave anything, read this

Everything on this page is correct UEB, generated with liblouis, the open-source braille translator used by screen readers such as NVDA. It is enough to understand how a name or phrase is written and to check one. It is not a substitute for a professional transcription, for three concrete reasons:

The language and grade change the result. As the tables show, the same name can be written in grade 1 or grade 2, and a Spanish or French reader expects a different code. Decide who will read it before deciding what to write.

Raised dots have physical rules. A braille dot is not a printed dot. The ADA Standards set the dot base diameter at 0.059 to 0.063 inches (1.5 to 1.6 mm), the dot height at 0.025 to 0.037 inches (0.6 to 0.9 mm), and the distance between dots in a cell at 0.090 to 0.100 inches (2.3 to 2.5 mm). Dots that are too flat, too big or too close together cannot be read by touch, even if the pattern is right. This matters for jewelry, plaques and tattoos.

An engraving or tattoo cannot be corrected. On paper, a mistake is reprinted. On metal or skin, it is not.

If you are ordering something permanent, talk to a certified braille transcriber or to a blindness organization in your country, such as the National Federation of the Blind in the US, and ask for a braille reader to check it by touch before you sign off. This page gets you to that conversation knowing what you are asking for.

How to write any name, step by step

1. Put the capital indicator, dot 6 (⠠), before the first letter. Just one.
2. Write each letter in its own cell, in the same order as in print. The full chart is in the braille alphabet.
3. For grade 2, apply the contractions: look for groups such as ch, ar, er, en, the, of and and.
4. Leave one blank cell between first and last name, just like a space.
5. Check it in the translator, and with a braille reader if it will be raised.

If you want to learn to read it rather than copy it, start with how to learn braille.

Frequently asked questions

How do you write "I love you" in braille?

In grade 2, the standard form of English braille, it is ⠠⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽: capital sign, I, space, l-o-v-e, space, and y, which stands for you. In grade 1 it is ⠠⠊ ⠇⠕⠧⠑ ⠽⠕⠥, with you spelled out.

Is the "I love you" hand sign braille?

No. The hand shape with the thumb, index finger and little finger raised comes from American Sign Language, which combines the letters I, L and Y. ASL is a visual language used by Deaf communities; braille is a tactile writing system used by blind people. They are unrelated.

How do I write my name in braille?

Put the capital sign, dot 6 (⠠), before the first letter, then one cell per letter. In grade 2, groups like ch, er or ar become a single cell. You can type your name into the braille translator and see both grades.

How many cells does a name take?

In grade 1, one per letter plus one for the capital sign: Emma is 5 cells and Charlotte 10. In grade 2 it can be fewer: Charlotte is 8. A name in all capitals takes one more cell, because the capital sign is doubled.

Why is my name different in grade 1 and grade 2?

Because grade 2 writes common groups of letters in one cell, even inside names. Christopher is 12 cells in grade 1 and 9 in grade 2, thanks to ch, st and er. Names without those groups, such as Emma or Liam, are the same in both.

Can I use this for a tattoo, ring or plaque?

Use it to understand the rule and check the pattern, not as the final file. Raised braille depends on the language, the grade and physical standards for dot size and spacing. Before engraving anything, ask a certified transcriber or a blindness organization, and have someone read it by touch.

Is braille the same in every language?

No. The basic letters a to z are shared by most languages that use the Latin alphabet, but capitals, accents and contractions differ. A name transcribed in Spanish braille is not the same as in English braille. The details are in braille in other languages.