Words

Words

Before learning what shorthand letters represent, make sure the shorthand alphabet is learned thoroughly.

Letters of the alphabet are also used to represent whole words. Sometimes they can also be written above or below the line to show different words.

The shorthand letters a to e are shown below. The letter 'a' can represent the pronoun, a. For example, 'The man bought a newspaper'. It can also be used to represent the words after, able, ability and ability to. The shorthand letter a written above the line in the air represents the word 'at'.

To use shorthand in sentences simply replace any of the words below with the symbol for the letter 'a'.

Scroll down for video explaining shorthand words

The shorthand letters f to j and the words that they can represent are shown below.

 The shorthand letters k to o and the words that they can represent are shown below.

The shorthand letters p to t and the words that they can represent are shown below.

The shorthand letters u to z and the words that they can represent are shown below.

Learn the shorthand alphabet and the words that they represent well. With this basic shorthand knowledge students can go on to achieve up to 120 words-a-minute shorthand writing - that's almost as fast as somebody speaking quite quickly.

Just be learning the shorthand alphabet and the small number of words that each letter on its own represents students can write some very simple sentences.  What sentences can you make from the words above?

How about ...'We would like intelligent gentlemen' and 'A lot of police are very kind'.

Thankfully it is not necessary to learn shorthand by memorising different symbols for every different language. Once the basis letters are learned we can use 'shorthand theory' to group letters together to make new words.