Chapter 14: Suffix keys and compound words

Useful links

• Compound words drill
• Words with suffix keys drill

Suffix keys

One special type of suffix stroke is the suffix key; these are suffix strokes that contain only one key. There are four on the right hand side which are useful for changing the tense of a verb or for pluralizing nouns.

NOTE: while -S and -Z have the same definition, you are expected to use -Z exclusively as a suffix key.

Examples of correct usage

• fasting TPAFT/-G
• wedging WEPBLG/-G
• typed TAOEUP/-D
• served SEFRB/-D
• faces TPAEUS/-Z
• knives TPHAOEUF/-Z

Folding

This section on folding is mostly for your interest only. It is not a recommended technique at this point.

Folding is an advanced technique where extra keys are included in a stroke regardless of steno order. Folding a suffix key into a stroke is only possible if they key is not already present in another chord. Of the examples above, the following can be written with folded suffix keys:

• fasting TPAFGT
• knives TPHAOEUFZ
• served SEFRBD
• typed TAOEUPD

To pluralize words ending in -T, normally the -Z key is used. For example, “crates” is KRAEUT/-Z. However, folding will result in the following stroke:

Some theories will dictate pressing the -T with the ring finger and the -Z with the pinkie finger. However, this is not a technique used in Lapwing. Instead, the proper way to pluralize the word in one stroke uses the -S key: KRAEUTS.

Plover’s steno engine and folded suffix keys

This technique of including a suffix key in the last stroke is “baked” into the English steno engine in Plover. To illustrate this, writing the stroke HAEPZ, will output “happies”. However, this isn’t actually defined in the Lapwing dictionary:

Plover recognizes that the outline HAEP is defined as “happy” (this is a Lapwing/Plover brief) and so tries to fold the -Z suffix key into the translation. Because of the orthography rules built into the English steno engine, Plover removes the ending “y” and adds “ies” to the translation.

This happens with all of the suffix keys—try out HAEPD, HAEPS, and HAEPG.

Should you use folding?

Using the Plover lookup tool, you can find a lot of entries with folded suffix keys. In fact, you won’t find many entries where the suffix keys aren’t folded into the previous stroke. Despite this, it is recommended that you do not fold suffix keys.

Folding can lead to conflicts such as:

While folding can save a stroke for several words, it may not always be faster. Trying to remember any potential conflicts may introduce hesitation; the resulting folded outline may be harder to press (taking longer to stroke); and folding one of these keys may make it easier to accidentally misstroke.

Pressing -G, -S, -D, or -Z as a separate stroke is not significantly slower than folding; single key strokes are fast to write and much less error prone than folding. That being said, folding is a personal choice, and you are more than welcome to try it out.

Section practice

Words with suffix keys drill

The A “prefix” key

While not nearly treated as specially as the suffix keys, the A key on its own is a prefix stroke. Contrary to other prefixes that should be used to modify a root word, this stroke can be used entirely on its own without any regard to the semantic meanings of the strokes.

Examples

• about A/PWOUT
• accretion A/KRAOEGS
• allow A/HROU
• amend A/PHEPBD

Compound words

Compound words (more specifically, closed compound words) consist of two words joined together with nothing in between. To write these, asterisk the first stroke of the second word. If there is already an asterisk in this stroke, leave it as is.

Examples

• candlelight KAPBD/-L/HRAO*EUT
• grasshopper TKPWRAS/HO*P/*ER
• eyelash AOEU/HRA*RB
• teamwork TAEPL/WO*RBG

Section practice

Compound words drill

No test this chapter!