Lesson 3 of 6

Vowel marks

Sometimes a consonant skeleton isn't enough — bt could be bat, bit, bought. Forkner's answer is a set of tiny marks, flicked in above the word after you finish writing it.

How vowel marks work

Instead of full letters, the vowels a, o, u, and short i are reduced to quick dots and apostrophe-like ticks. Two rules govern them:

Write them last. Finish the word's body first, then add marks above the spot where the vowel belongs — exactly like dotting an i or crossing a t.

They're optional. Marks exist for the moments a skeleton would be ambiguous. Most words are perfectly legible without them, and experienced writers leave most of them out. When in doubt early on, mark; as you gain confidence, drop.

The four marks

a — an apostrophe-like tick above the word.
bat → bt + tick above

short i — a dot above the word.
bill → bl + dot above

o — a small slanted dash above the word.
top → tp + slanted dash

u / oo — a comma-like mark above the word.
book → bk + comma mark

A note on exact shapes. The published Forkner textbooks went through several editions, and the precise shape assigned to each vowel mark varies a little between them (and between the drawings above and any given edition). What never varies is the principle: one small, distinct mark per vowel, written above the word, after the word. Pick a set, be consistent, and your notes will read perfectly.

Long vowels and diphthongs keep real letters

Strong vowel sounds carry too much information to shrink. Forkner reserves ordinary cursive vowel letters for them:

need → ned (long e keeps its cursive e)

deal → del

how → ho (the ow/ou diphthong is written with o)

out → ot

now → no (context separates this from 'no'/'know')

Putting it together

Here's the full decision path you now know, applied to one sentence — "send the bill to the top manager":

Word	You write	Thinking
send	snd	short e dropped
bill	bl (+ dot)	short i → dot, or omit; double l collapses
top	tp (+ dash)	short o → slanted dash, or omit
manager	mnjr	phonetic j, interior vowels dropped

Little words like the and to get even shorter treatment — that's Lesson 5's brief forms.

Drill

Write the skeleton, then add the correct mark. Do the set twice: once with marks, once without — and read both back tomorrow.

cat, fit, hot, cut, map, tip, lock, luck, back, list, drop, fund

Answers: ctᵃ, ftⁱ, htᵒ, ctᵘ, mpᵃ, tpⁱ, lkᵒ, lkᵘ, bkᵃ, lstⁱ, drpᵒ, fndᵘ — superscripts show which mark goes above.

Write it out

Marks are a motor habit, not a fact to memorize: body of the word first, pen back over the top second. These sets build that rhythm — write everything on ruled paper, because the marks live above the line.

Check yourself

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