Braille Punctuation, Capitals and Symbols
How capitals, numbers and punctuation work in Braille: the capital sign, the number sign and the cells for commas, periods, question marks and more.
Type a sentence with marks and see the Braille.
English Braille has no accented letters, but it does have a clear set of rules for capitalization, numbers and punctuation. These are shown with special signs and dedicated cells rather than by altering the letters.
Getting these right is what makes a Braille text readable: a misplaced number sign or missing capital sign changes the meaning. This page explains each rule and lets you test it in the translator.
Why these signs matter so much
English Braille may have no accented letters, but it is far from a plain letter-for-letter swap. A handful of signs carry an enormous amount of meaning, and getting them right is the difference between Braille that reads smoothly and Braille that confuses.
Consider how much rides on two small marks. The capital sign tells the reader that a letter is uppercase, distinguishing a name from an ordinary word or marking the start of a sentence. The number sign flips the following cells from letters into digits, so the very same shape can safely mean either b or two depending on context. Punctuation adds another layer, with each comma, full stop, question mark and quotation mark having its own cell placed exactly where the printed mark would fall. Leave one of these out, or put it in the wrong place, and a sentence can become ambiguous or simply wrong. That is why this page treats them as carefully as the alphabet itself, and why the translator applies them for you automatically: they are not decoration, they are the grammar that makes written Braille readable.
A useful way to build the habit is to type complete sentences into the translator rather than single words. Watching where the capital sign attaches, how the number sign switches a run of cells, and exactly where each punctuation cell lands turns these abstract rules into something you can see at a glance. With a little practice the placement starts to feel natural, and you will read and write punctuated Braille with the same ease you bring to print.
Capital and number signs
The capital sign (⠠) before a letter makes it uppercase; for an all-caps word, conventions vary, but per-letter capital signs always work. The number sign (⠼) before cells turns them into digits until a space or letter follows.
Numbers in Braille
Type a sentence with marks and see the Braille.
Punctuation cells
Each punctuation mark has its own Braille cell. The most common are the period, comma, semicolon, colon, exclamation mark, question mark, hyphen, apostrophe and quotation marks. Parentheses use a two-cell sequence.
Type a sentence such as Hello, world! in the translator to see how the comma and exclamation mark are placed. The cells sit between words exactly where the printed marks would be.
Why English has no accents
Standard English spelling does not use accented letters, so English Braille tables do not assign accent cells. Borrowed words that keep an accent (like café) are usually written without it in Braille, or with a special foreign-language indicator in advanced use.
Other languages, such as Portuguese, Spanish or French, do have accent cells in their own Braille tables. This site keeps English in its standard, unaccented form.
Frequently asked questions
How is punctuation written in Braille?
Each mark has its own cell, placed where the printed mark would go. Type a sentence in the tool to see it.
How do I show a capital letter?
Place the capital sign (⠠) before the letter.
How are numbers separated from letters?
The number sign (⠼) starts a number; a space or letter ends it.
Does English Braille use accents?
No. Standard English has no accented letters, so there are no accent cells.
How are parentheses written?
With a two-cell sequence; the translator handles them automatically.