Chapter 11: Right hand compound clusters

Recommended pace

Recommended time to spend on this chapter: 1–3 days.

1. Read right hand shun and kshun and complete the drill (20 minutes)
   • Repeat the drill as needed
2. Read right hand ment and let and complete the drill (20 minutes)
   • Repeat the drill as needed
3. Read right hand bl and complete the drill (20 minutes)
   • Repeat the drill as needed
4. Attempt the test (20 minutes)
   • Practise as needed

Remember to take breaks!

Useful links

• Right hand shun, kshun, and x words
• Right hand ment and let words drill
• Right hand -BL words drill
• Chapter 11 test

Intro

All the chords covered so far represent single sounds. However, there are some chords (particularly on the right hand) that can represent multiple syllables. These are referred to as compound clusters.

Right hand shun, kshun, and x

• -GS is “-shun” as in “ocean”
• -BGS represents two sounds:
  • “-x” as in “tax”
  • “-kshun” as in in “friction”

Examples

• motion PHOEGS
• caution KAUGS
• fax TPABGS
• tex TEBGS

“-kshun” and “-x” conflicts

Some words like “axe” and “action” conflict with the same outline: ABGS. In these cases, the “-x” sound is given higher priority and “-kshun” sound is relegated to *BGS (same chord, but with the asterisk key).

Examples

• faction TPA*BGS (since TPABGS is already “fax”)
• section S*EBGS (since SEBGS is already “sex”)

Mnemonics:

Feel free to come up with your own or even suggest some!

1. “mugs in the ocean”
2. -BGS as the “-x” chord is simply just the combination of the “-k” chord -BG and the -S key
3. -BGS as the “-kshun” chord overlaps with the “-k” chord -BG and the “-shun” chord -GS

Section practice

Right hand shun, kshun, and x words

Right hand ment and let

• -PLT is “-ment” as in “moment”
• -LT is “-let” as in “scarlet”

Examples

• garment TKPWARPLT
• torment TORPLT
• roulette RAOULT
• wallet WAULT

Mnemonics:

Feel free to come up with your own or even suggest some!

1. Taking the middle out of “ment” gives “mt” which is what -PLT represents
2. Taking the middle out of “let” gives “lt” which is what -LT represents

Section practice

Right hand ment and let words

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of practice material for single stroke words containing these chords.

Right hand -BL

• -BL represents several different sounds:
  • “-bl” as in “double”
  • “-abl” as in “pliable”
  • “-ibl” as in “possible”
  • “-b_l” as in “global”, “mobile”, “label”

All these sounds are similar to one another in that they all contain “bl” and optionally an unstressed vowel. This refers to a vowel that isn’t emphasized. Think about how the phrase “lay bell” differs in sound to the word “label”. In the first case, the “e” is stressed while in the second case, it is not.

Examples

• pebble PEBL
• wobble WOBL
• playable PHRAEUBL
• chewable KHAOUBL
• tribal TRAOEUBL
• rebel REBL

NOTE: the word “rebel” can be pronounced as RAOE/PWEL or REBL depending on if it is a verb or a noun. While the dictionary contains both, the single stroke variant is recommended as it is faster.

Mnemonics:

Feel free to come up with your own or even suggest some!

1. -BL already looks a lot like the sounds it represents; remember to skip over any unstressed vowels as well.

Section practice

Right hand -BL words drill

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of practice material for single stroke words containing these chords.

Chapter 11 test

This chapter’s test consists of all the practice drills in this chapter. Make sure your settings are configured as such:

• Limit word count: 45
• Start from word: 1
• Repetitions: 3
• Sort: random
• Show hint for every word: unchecked
• Hide hint on last repetition: unchecked
• Show hint on misstroke: checked

Click here to access the chapter 11 test

Recommended completion goal

This is only a suggestion; it is not a requirement to move to the next chapter!

Aim for 10–20 WPM with 90% accuracy.

You may use the test material as practice!

Chapter briefs

This section is completely optional, but recommended. If you prefer to learn these all at once, they will be covered in chapter 16.

NOTE: remember that these are briefs; the explanations are not applicable to any arbitrary word.

Practice sentences

1. should you follow them?
2. could we first pass through?
3. would you know every place?
4. where are they?

Answers

1. SHUD/U/TPOL/THEPL/KW-PL
2. KUD/WAOE/TPEUFRT/PAS/THRU/KW-PL
3. WUD/U/TPHOE/EFR/PHRAEUS/KW-PL
4. W-R/-R/THE/KW-PL

Extra briefs