Lesson 5 of 6

Brief forms, abbreviations & phrasing

Half of everything you write is the same few dozen words — the, and, you, for, will… Brief forms shrink each of them to a stroke or two, and phrasing joins them together without lifting the pen.

Brief forms

A brief form is a fixed shortcut for a very frequent word. Because the word is so common, you memorize its shortcut once and cash in on every line you ever write. Some are obvious (u = you); some only make sense once learned — the Forkner textbook's own example is Db for distribute.

Starter set. Learn these ten this week — they cover a remarkable share of ordinary English:

Write	For	Write	For
&	and	l	will, well
u	you	v	very
r	are	o	of
f	for	t	it, at
b	be, been	w	we, with

Brief-form lists vary a little between Forkner editions — the full textbooks define over a hundred. This starter set follows common Forkner-style practice; what matters is committing to one list and drilling it until the forms are automatic.

How to memorize brief forms: don't study them — use them. Write one sentence per form ("l u b there?" — will you be there?), then use the flashcards daily until recall is instant. Instant matters: a brief form you have to think about is slower than writing the word out.

Standard abbreviations survive

Every abbreviation you already know keeps working: days (mon, tu, wed…), months (jan, feb…), units, dept, co, govt, ok. Numbers are always written as figures — 7, never seven. If an abbreviation is common enough that future-you will read it cold, it belongs in your notes.

Phrasing: join the little words

Common word-pairs are written as one joined outline, no pen lift and no space. The savings compound fast, because these pairs appear constantly:

of the → ot (brief o + brief t, joined)

will you → lu

we are → wr

for you → fu

thank you → th+u (th symbol joined to u)

Rule of thumb: phrase only what you say as one breath-group, and only with words you have brief forms for. Over-phrasing creates puzzles; good phrasing reads itself.

Punctuation in shorthand

comma — written inside a small circle, so it can't be mistaken for a vowel mark hovering over the line.

Periods and question marks are written as usual. For a new paragraph in fast dictation, many writers just leave a longer gap or a short double slash //.

Read a real sentence

You can now write an entire business sentence in shorthand. Decode this (brackets show symbols):

w l snd u [th]e rprt f [th]e [m]e[t][ing] on mon

Answer: "We will send you the report for the meeting on Monday."
w = we · l = will · snd = send · u = you · the = th-symbol + e · rprt = report · f = for · meeting = m-stroke, e, t, ing-curve · mon = Monday.

Write it out

Brief forms are the one part of Forkner you genuinely have to memorize — and the fastest way in is writing them inside real sentences, not staring at the table. Cover the starter set above before you start, and only peek when you're truly stuck.

Check yourself

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