Alphabet "Songs"

These are simple alphabet "songs", poems and other little ditties designed originally to help children learn the English alphabet, but they happen to be pretty fun to use for steno practice, too!  Most also have an audio file read by Librivox  volunteers.  These audio files range from 80-120rwpm but you can adjust the speed.  StenoJig is enabled so you can practice with or without audio, your choice.

Each of these activities has a mix of letters to write out using fingerspelling and words.  Each contains every letter of the alphabet at least once and at least one word that is not in Plover's default dictionary that you will need to fingerspell in order to write it.  (Yes, you could just quickly create a new entry and add the word to your user dictionary, but the words needing fingerspelling are mostly nonsense words and/or words you are highly unlikely to ever use again!)

New to fingerspelling?

To write any letter, simply stroke the key(s) used for that letter and the asterisk * key at the same time.  To capitalize the letter at the same time, stroke the keys for the letter, the * key and the right-hand P key all at the same time.

Examples: lowercase b, uppercase B, lowercase c, uppercase C
B*/ B*P/ KR*/ KR*P

Letter Z (which may be pronounced as "zee" or "zed" on audios):  We use S* for Z when writing words that start with or contain the letter Z but for fingerspelling, use STKPW* for lowercase z and STKPW*P for uppercase z.  This is because S* is used to fingerspell the letter S.

Lowercase z, uppercase Z:

STKPW*/ STKPW*P

Punctuation used:  Note original punctuation from these texts has been lightly edited to better conform with modern English punctuation usage and/or simplified to ease steno practices.  Only the following punctuation is used:

• Period .
• Comma ,
• Exclamation point !

Words that may trip you up are listed on each page of this activity, as are other useful tips that may apply to that lesson.  

Useful command strokes:  These command strokes are not in the Plover main dictionary by default. If you wish to use them, you'll need to create new entries in your user dictionary using strokes of your choice.

• {*>}  Retroactively lower case first letter of last word stroked
  
• {*-|}  Retroactively upper case first letter of last word stroked
  
• {>}    Force lower case first letter of next word stroked 
  
• {-|}    Force upper case first letter of next word stroked

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