In this lesson you will learn the first half of the alphabet and how to join the letters together to make words. You will also learn some ‘common words’ – these are words that are used regularly in the English language and so have a short cut in Teeline.
By the end of the (trial lesson) you should confidently be able to write those letters of the alphabet without looking them up and can make simple words and sentences.
EXERCISE ONE
Most vowels are omitted when writing Teeline. The following passage includes essential vowels only – see how quickly you can read it. Teeline is not phonetic but occasionally sounds are used to represented common combinations that use difficult spellings – for example: ‘shl’ to represent ‘tial’. Silent letters for example ‘d’ as in ‘edge’ are omitted.
U shld b able t rd ths esly. Wth jst th eesnshl vwls incldd hier spds cn b achvd bt th mnng of th wrds r stl clr n esy t rd bc.
THE TEELINE ALPHABET
The arrow indicates the direction the letter must be written. Sometimes, two versions of the same letter are shown. The first version will be the most common and the second is used for joining more easily to other letters.
Two versions of each vowel are shown – the half version – vowel indicator – is used the most and the full version has more special uses shown later. Vowels are smaller than the consonants. Consonants are the same size as in longhand.
The letters are written in the same positions on or through the line as in longhand.
click here for a full size printable image of the above graphic
PRACTICE
Study the alphabet letters and the ways to form them. Now complete the following worksheet:
click here for a full size printable image of the above graphic
*WORKING WITH WORKSHEETS – These are designed to help you practice the new outlines. You should copy the lines three times, saying the characters to yourself as you write. The more you do the drills, the more easily and quickly you will be able to learn and use the new characters. These are provided in the lessons for you in pdf format so that you can print them out easily.
JOINING LETTERS TO FORM WORDS
Now that you have learnt the first half of the alphabet you can join the letters to form words.
Letters are kept to the same size and shape when joined together, the first letter usually determining the position on the line.
Most vowels are omitted so the following combinations could represent different words:
click here for a full size printable image of the above graphic
check your answers - drag your cursor over the box below to reveal the correct words:
ball, bell, bill, bull; laugh; cab, cub, cob; club; goal; gull; duck, deck, dick; black; flag
Remember some words can have a number of meanings and you need to be able to read these in context
click here for a full size printable image of the above graphic
To find the answers to the above exercise - drag your cursor over the next few lines to reveal what your transcription should be :
1. The dog fell, the duck laughed
2. Kindly check the letter
3. The lady at the club had a bad leg
4. The black cab took the lady to the city
5 I had a bad cough and cold all day
In order to listen to the sound files and undertake the dication you will need an MP3 player on your computer - such as Real Player - Windows Media Player - Winamp. We can not suggest which one is best for your computer, however there are plenty of free ones available on the internet.
Now you can practice writing some words in to Teeline as dictation. Click on the 'play' button below. The more you practice the faster you will become - don't expect to get every word first time!
Press play :
Alternatively you will need to find somebody to dictate this for you :
- Please take the letter to the post box as quick as you can
- You must go and see the dog that the lady bought today
- Tell the manager that you will not stop when the clock strikes five
- The Chairman will not be able to go to the meeting as he had an accident in his car today
- Would the gentleman kindly wait by the door to the department until we are ready to call him in
- I asked the question of the teacher but he did not give me an answer at the time
- I went to the park I lost the blue ball.
- Will you please type the letter so that I can post it today.
Once you have finished writing, press play again to check your work. Keep practicing to increase your speed and confidence.
We will use files like this in our lessons for you to practice with. As you work through the course you will build up your speeds and the sound files will become faster.
Want some more? Want to learn the rest of the alphabet and lots more - how to join multiple words together to make phrases, shortened versions of words, lots more exercises and sound files? You will need to register, read on.
HOW TO REGISTER
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