Letter-sounds using one key on both sides: S, P, R, T [note to self moving T to next section]

Quick Review of Introduction to Steno

Steno is performed with both hands on both sides of the steno keyboard, similar to a standard keyboard.  Unlike most standard keyboards, steno keyboards are chorded meaning multiple keys can be pressed at the same time - a stroke - to not only represent letter-sounds, briefs and phrases, but also punctuation, command/function keys, cursor movements and more.   Steno is written from left to right; that is, steno machines and steno software process text input from left to right, moving like a snake up and down each column across the keyboard.  This is called  steno order.

Steno is the art and skill of writing phonetically and syllabically but it is not strictly phonetic or syllabic; there are elements of mnemonics and abbreviation to it.  We write the "predominate starting sound" of a word, word part or syllable with our left hand, the "predominant vowel sound" with our thumbs on the bottom row, and the "predominant ending sound" of a word, word part or syllable with our right hand.  Because entire syllables, word parts or whole words are written at once in a single stroke using one or both hands, most consonants must exist on both sides of the keyboard.

The bottom row of the steno keyboard contains four keys A O E U representing the short vowels of those same letters.  A mnemonic device to remember these four vowels is  Adorable Onions  Explode Unicorns.  Combinations of these keys are used to write long vowels and the vowel I, but we cover that in a later section.  It's just enough to know that these keys are used for vowels for now.

Every key and key combination not only represents a letter-sound - a phoneme - many keys and key combinations are also assigned to a brief, that is, an abbreviation for a common word and/or phrase.  Phrases are briefs that contain more than one word.

StudySteno Typographical Conventions

• In general, we designate individual keys on the left hand side with a hyphen after them such as S-, R-, P- and keys on the right hand side with a hyphen before them, such as -S, -R, -P. 
• We usually drop the hyphen when we are designating individual vowel keys A O E U, talking about a letter-sound key in general (i.e., "the S keys are..."] or designating strokes that contain vowels such as SAS or STORG (because the vowels differentiate left and right side).
• Hyphens are used when there is no vowel to differentiate between left and right side of the keyboard,  such as S-T.
• Slashes indicate strokes STOR/-G, PRE/SET

The S, T, P and R Keys

Looking at the steno keyboard, you'll notice that there are single keys representing the S, P and R sounds on both sides of the keyboard.  Conveniently, these letters use the same finger on both hands:  Pinkies for the S keys, middle fingers for the P keys, and index fingers for the R.   The left hand ring finger is used for the left hand T- key, and the right hand pinkie finger is used for the right hand -T key.  We'll be focusing on the S P R keys first.  

As a reminder, all keys on a steno keyboard are organized from left to right based on their frequency of use in writing English words.

More English words begin with the letter S than any other word - about 11% of all English words.  As more words begin with ST than begin with SP, combined with more words beginning with the letter T than the letter P, placing the T key directly after the S key.  Considering just how many words start with consonant combinations such as ST, SP, STR, and STP, the placement of these keys within steno order makes a lot of sense.  Imagine if T was the first key - it'd be essentially impossible to write words that begin with ST or STR! 

[PRACTICE HERE WRITING SIMPLE WORDS WITH THESE LETTERS, THEN DIG INTO THE DETAILS!]

Obviously, the S T P R keys are used to write the sounds represented by those letters and combinations of those letters, but these keys also have a few other tricks up their sleeves.  

The R keys:

Why are pirates called pirates?  Because they arrr!

   

In the box below, press the left hand R- key first then the right hand -R key.  Notice how both R keys write out the word "are" when pressed individually?  That's because they are also used for the brief "are" - which is easy to remember since "are" sounds like "R".

Why does the "are" brief exist on both keys, on both sides of the keyboard?

In the box below, press the left hand R- key and release it to write "are".  Then, press the U key to write the brief for "you" (covered in Adorable Onions section).  Two strokes to write "are you" is definitely better than the seven individual keypresses needed to type "are you" on a keyboard.  But wait, there's more!

Now, stroke RU by pressing the left hand R- key and the U key at the same time in the box below to see why.

As you can see, stroking RU together at the same time writes the phrase "are you" - which conveniently sounds just like the letters R and U.  Phrases are briefs that contain more than one word.  Plover (and all other steno theories) have a large variety of briefs for the most commonly used words and phrases, most of which are stroked in a logically consistent manner (but not always).

As mentioned in Adorable Onions, the * key is used to undo the last stroke and is also often used within strokes to differentiate dictionary entries for similar or connected words, phrases, commands and more.  Stroke RU again, then stroke R*U.  Notice how adding the * key to the RU stroke swapped the phrase "are you" to "you are".  This is a very common pattern of strokes found in a lot of phrases where by adding * to a phrase brief, it reverses the word order.  

So, what happens when we stroke UR?  You'd expect "you are" even though we already now know that R*U writes "you are" but instead, you get "you're".  Now, stroke *UR .   There's "you are" again!  This time, the pattern is stroking two common word brief keys together to write a contraction and then stroking the same phrase brief but with * to write out the uncontracted phrase.  In Plover's default dictionary, most common contractions are written with this pattern - no star for contraction, star for no contraction.

If you are like me, you're probably wondering why not use the * for the contractions.  That would makes sense to many of us coming from a touch-typing background, wouldn't it?  The simple answer lies in the historical use of steno for court reporting and depositions.  People speak using contractions far more than they don't, so it made sense to reserve the no star outlines for the more commonly used words/phrases.

Now, don't worry about having to learn a bunch of contractions right now, we'll dig deeper into them later on in the course, and I'll also introduce you to a separate contraction dictionary that reverses this pattern and uses the * for all contractions as an option to consider.  The point of covering this right now is to demonstrate two very simple and very common patterns that you will come across A LOT while learning the keyboard and stenography involving the * key:  To reverse word order of common phrases and write out contractions.  Being aware of this pattern now, even though we won't be digging deeply into contractions until later, will (hopefully) save you some frustration when you look up how to write a word or phrase and are mystified by * entries!

Now, in the box below, press both R keys together at the same time:  R-R  

R-R  is exactly the same as pressing the ENTER key on a standard keyboard (or RETURN or \n new line).  Nifty, eh?  Note that R-R simply enters and creates a new line.  It does not automatically capitalize the next word, insert a tab, or anything else.  It's just like hitting ENTER.

R-R is what I call a command keystroke.  Command keystrokes are simply briefs that provide the same functionality as the equivalent nonalphanumeric key on a typical non-steno keyboard layout.  Examples of function keys are ENTER, CTRL (control), ALT, SHIFT, ESC, F1 through F12, HOME, END and others.  Combinations of the command keystrokes are used to open files, ALT-TAB, toggle bold formatting and more.  You are, of course, free to simply call these briefs or outlines because they are!

In general, I call them command keystrokes because most of them exist in Plover's "commands" dictionary and not the "main" dictionary.  (Don't worry, we'll get into what the different dictionaries are and why there are different ones later on.)  I also differentiate command keystrokes from all others because some of you may have no desire to learn any command keystrokes other than TAB, ENTER, and SHIFT.  While we do introduce and touch on the most common command keystrokes throughout the course, we dig deep into them in a separate "Explore More" section of each lesson.  That way, those who want to know more can do so and those who don't (or prefer to learn them later on) can easily do so.  

For now, the one thing to remember is that R-R is the same as the ENTER key on a standard keyboard and that all non-alphanumeric keys can be stroked with steno.

[Using word roar, intro Plover lookup and use as example of why multiple entries for one word, spelling based, phonetic based, phonetic variations, how significant portion of entries have multiple entries and this is why.  Then use word "you" to show more? maybe?] 

The S Keys

She sells seashells by the seashore but the seashells she sells are not seashells, I’m sure.

   

In the box below, go ahead and play around with pressing the S- and -S keys, both individually and together.  Don't worry about what you see written by Plover.  What patterns do you see?  

Let's try writing some super simple words.  Click in the box below just below the first word and begin writing each word.  Yes, it is perfectly okay if you look at your hands on your keyboard and/or the stroke hints on the right!  Remember that steno order is left to right and to use your * key if you need to delete your last stroke.  Restart and rewrite these words till you feel a bit comfortable writing them.  Tip:  Stroke R-R three times in a row to restart (or just hit your ENTER key on a keyboard).

Note how each word is written following the rules of steno order.   Using the word "so" as an example, we use the left hand S- key and not the right hand -S key because the predominant first sound of the word "so" is that of the letter-sound S and, of course, the O key because "so" is pronounced with a short O sound.  Granted, the word "so" is a very simple word and it happens to be written in steno the same way it is spelled, as is true of the other words you just wrote.

Ready to try some more?  Remember steno order:  The predominant first sound of a word (or syllable, but we'll get to that later) is written with the left hand and the predominant ending sound with your right hand.  As above, feel free to restart and rewrite these words as many times as you want until you feel at least a bit comfortable with writing them. 

Did the word "spa" trip your fingers up a bit?  Don't be surprised if it did!  So far, you've been writing consonant-vowel or consonant-vowel-consonant sound combinations; you've already begun encoding how to write those sound combinations.  "Spa" is a consonant-consonant-vowel sound combination and if this was your first time writing the SP sound - the SP consonant cluster - some hesitation placing your fingers in the right position is to be expected, especially when your fingers are still used to typing letters one at a time!

A consonant cluster (sometimes called a compound cluster) is simply two or more consonants that are written and sounded together and, almost always, within the same syllable.  There are numerous consonant clusters sounds in the English language.  Fortunately, the steno keyboard layout is designed in such a way the most common ones (for example sp, st, sh, sk, th, tr sounds on the left) are straightforward.  Others, such as the "lch" or "mp" sounds that numerous words end with are a bit more complicated to write.  Don't worry about those right now though, we'll dig into them in other sections as we learn the keys and keystrokes associated with those letters.

Ready to learn another key?

The T Keys

While the S P and R keys on both sides use the same finger on both hands, the left T- key uses your ring finger and the right -T key uses your pinky.  Alphabetically, the letter T follows S, which makes it easier to remember that the T is above the S on the right hand side.  

Another way to remember the keys of STPR-RPTS is that they appear in one order on the left and the opposite order on the right.  Or mnemonically, adding in the A key, as:  S am Took Pat  R iding And Rode  Past The S tore

Let's write some more!

[Need to add about theory rules re dropping double consonants, unsounded/unstressed syllables, only the sounded vowel...]

spar

sore

How would you write the word "pour"?

POR

That's right! We use the stroke POR for "pour" because the most common English pronunciation of "pour" uses a short "o" sound.

How would you  write the word "our"?

Some small, very common words are written in steno the same way they are spelled on a keyboard, even though it may not be strictly phonetic.  In the case of the word "our", there's at least three different common pronunciations yet only one 

<insert>

part

pert

port

prat

rapt

spat

spot

step

stop

tarp

trap

sort

star

sprat

strap

strep

strop

pour

store

out (note not phonetic (some words that are spelled with ou but sounded long ou sound

pout (spelling = phonetic lol)

tour  (don't worry about sound-alike words)

pour

A Taste of Things to Come