Art of Chording

# Vowel ee

Special thanks to Paolo Michela for funding this lesson.

This lesson covers how you write the vowel sounds in "eel" and "real".

The "ee" vowel is made with the outline AOE.

# S T K P W H R A O * E U F R P B L G T S D Z
  • SAOE: see
  • SAOEG: seeing
  • AOEL: eel
  • AOER: ear
  • KWRAOER: year
  • AOES: ease
  • HAOEL: heel
  • PAOEL: peel
  • STAOEL: steel
  • TPAOEL: feel
  • THAOE: thee

# Words spelled with "ea"

There are a lot of homophones that have "ea" instead of "ee"; like "meet" and "meat", "steel" and "steal", and "reel" and "real". To write the "ea" word, use AE instead of AOE.

# S T K P W H R A O * E U F R P B L G T S D Z
  • HAOEL: heel
    • HAEL: heal
  • PHAOET: meet
    • PHAET: meat
  • RAOEL: reel
    • RAEL: real
  • STAOEL: steel
    • STAEL: steal

AE can be used to resolve homophones in other vowels, too, like the difference between "bear" and "bare":

  • PWAEUR: bare
    • PWAER: bear
  • HAEUR: hair
    • HAER: hear (word spelled with "ea")
    • HA*EUR: heir (asterisk given to less common alternative)
    • HA*ER: hare (asterisk given to less common alternative)

# Shortening principle: folded-in E

One pattern that you might have started to notice is the folding-in of E in a stroke to add an "ee" sound at the end. For example, PHAEB is a brief for "maybe". You can think of the stroke as "mab-ee". This is best illustrated through examples:

  • PHAEB: maybe
  • PHAEPB: many
  • PHAER: marry
  • SOER: sorry
  • STOER: story
  • STOERPL: stormy
  • KAER: carry
  • HAEP: happy
  • SKAER: scary

# Briefs

Chord Translation Notes
AOEPB even
AOEPBL evenly
TKAOET detail
PAOEPL people
THEZ these
PHREZ, PHRAES please
R-L, HRAOERL really HRAOERL inverts the syllables, from "real-ly" to "ly-real"
R-D, TKRAE ready
K-P company

# Practice

# 1. Translate

Write the English sentence represented by these outlines, including punctuation.

# 2. Find outlines

Find steno outlines that will write these English sentences, including punctuation.

  1. Please see back for more detail.
  2. These people can not be reasoned with!
  3. Define to me what you really want, what you really need.
  4. Are you ready to see this scary haunted house?
  5. Even if you get out of here, you will never be the same.
  6. I was born the year before your mother was born. What is your year of birth?
  7. How do you feel when people tell you that your company brings them joy?
  8. Let me tell you my story, I am sure you do not have anything else to do tonight that beats sharing a beer with a new friend.
  9. It was not anything I would do again, but I do not hate the fact that I was there.
  10. I feel at home with you and want to stay together forever.
  11. Are you really ready to tell these people about the many things you did on your trip?

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