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In addition to the strokes, the sounds of S and Z are also
represented by circles and loops. This page also describes how to
write these sounds when the circles cannot be used. Loops are on separate page but are shown in the quick reference tables
below.
Quick Reference Table Circles and
Loops
Quick Reference Table Circles and Loops with hooks
CIRCLE S
Anticlockwise to straight strokes
Inside curves
Outside an angle
With hooks
With R Hook and N Hook to straight strokes
S versus Z sound
Why Circle S and Ses include the Z sound
CIRCLE SES
With hooks
When not to use
Vowels
Adding a third S
Other uses
CIRCLE SWAY
With hooks
When not to use
QUICK
REFERENCE TABLES
| Name |
Sound |
Initially |
Medially |
Finally |
| Circle S |
Initially=S
Elsewhere=S or Z
Z initially uses stroke Use Ess if no other
stroke |
soap
zeal
session |
posing |
pose |
| Circle Ses |
S-S, S-Z, Z-Z |
- |
persist |
poses |
|
Circle Sway |
Sw
Use Way if no other stroke, or medially or finally
|
sweep
sway |
-
persuading |
-
Kingsway |
| Stee Loop |
St
Use Tee if no other stroke |
stop
stay |
testing |
post |
| Ster Loop |
Ster
Never initially, use other strokes
|
-
sterling starry |
masterpiece |
poster |
Ses and Sway are mutually exclusive as regards
position on the stroke, therefore they will never clash with each other.
See Theory Vowels page for
vowel placement
against strokes that have these circles and loops.
-
Only Circle Ses can be vocalised, the
others cannot. Other than Circle Ses, it is the stroke that is vocalised.
-
There are no thick versions
of circle or loops.
-
They must be written in the
correct circular motion i.e. anti-clockwise (left motion) or
clockwise (right motion), according to the rules below.
-
They are read first and last in
the outline, or that section of the outline, with the stroke and its various
vowels, hooks, halving, etc
coming in the middle.
-
If the word starts or ends with a
vowel, strokes must be used instead.
-
May be added to
short forms and contractions.
-
May form part of
phrases.
-
Ensure to close the
circle or loop so that it does not look like a hook.
-
Ensure to take the
circles right round so they do not look like loops. When used
medially, circles will not always be exactly circular, they will
take on distortions, see
adjustment and chisel below
as examples of this. When this occurs, do not mistake them for
loops medial loops are always followed by a sharp change of
direction, see masterpiece in table
above, something circles never do.
Top of page
CIRCLE S
A vowel may come between the Circle S and the
stroke (e.g. sap, pass), or the two may be run together (e.g. spa,
apse). The outline gives no indication of this, unless
vocalised. In this respect the Circle S differs from the R and L
hooks which generally represent a compound consonant e.g. PL and PR.
Circle S is written:
- Anticlockwise to straight strokes
- Inside curves
- Outside an angle
Anti-clockwise to straight strokes:
sap spa apse pass sub
bus abs sit
stay eats teas
sad ads days
such choose sage juice
sack sky axe case sag guess eggs hose (=upward Hay)
ways yes
Between two similar straight strokes, still
anti-clockwise, the same as you would write it if the first stroke
was the only one:
decide disdain tacit testy precept
exact cask bespoke Busby
Inside
curves:
safe face sphere save voice Seth
thaws seethe this
size cease sash shows sign snow nice
inns
same maze aims smile simile songs sir ears
passer passive possess basin bosom design
flotsam
cousin chasm chosen adjacent adjustment reason resume
Between two curves that have the same motion, follow that motion:
evasive fasten lissom listen
unsafe muscle nicely noiseless
If the curves have opposite motions, the circle
generally goes clockwise, often (but not always) resulting in the
circle being outside the angle:
mason massive season unsolved arising
facile
but facility, vacillate
but
vacillated, insulate but
insulated
What you should NOT do with Circle S is make a
sudden change of direction; this somewhat awkward joining is used very
sparingly, being reserved for indicating:
- An R Hook on a following straight stroke,
where the hook cannot be shown in any other way; however, after
P and B the R hook is omitted for convenience (if it were shown,
it would look too much like a Stee loop):
describe
discretion disagree discourage
R omitted in: prescribe subscribe
- Stroke Hay medially, in order
to differentiate between Hay and Circle S:
anyhow, any such, upheld passer-by
Between M-N and N-M, in derivative words, the circle should remain
with its original curve:
miss missing, seemly unseemly, mince
mincemeat
some noisome (=annoy+some), noise noise-maker
Outside an angle:
passage beseech basic task dosage tassel
chisel respond
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With hooks
Where the circle and hook would individually be
written on the same side of the stroke, when you wish to show both,
the circle must be written INSIDE the hook. Theoretically, circle is
extra small and the hook remains its normal size; in practice the
hook generally needs to be ever so slightly larger to avoid ink
blobbing, and the circle can be flattened into a tiny loop (it is
not a Stee loop which are never used inside hooks). Do not let your small hooks grow in size and get confused
with the larger hooks (Shun, and L Hook on curves).
L Hook: supple splay settle
saddle satchel sickle safflower soufflι civil
R & N Hooks to curves:
suffer sever summer mains signer nines fines vines
F/V Hook: puff puffs cuff
cuffs tough toughs
Kway (Gway): square squash squeal squeeze
consequence
(Gway
could take Circle S but no examples found)
Way: use Circle S with Way for those words when
Circle Sway is not possible:
way sway persuade
but swerve swayed
Wel: does not take Circle S, instead discard the hook and use Sway
Circle on
stroke Ell:
well swell
Whay Whel Yay: do not take an initial Circle S
Where there is a vowel between a final F/V and S, this is generally a plural of an outline
that is already written with full strokes:
cave caves, cavy cavies, buff buffs,
bevy bevies
tiff tiffs, toffee
toffees, Dave Dave's,
Davey Davey's
A medial Circle S does not indicate a hook purely
by its direction, because the direction of the circle is used only
for convenience. In many cases a medial hook can be shown as well,
with the circle following the motion of the hook:
bicycle express listener display
miscreant unschooled inscrutable
Small Shun Hook: Circle S, and Circle S following N hook, can both
be followed by the small shun hook
composition compensation decision
condensation transition
Top of page
With R Hook and N Hook to straight strokes:
On a straight stroke, the R or N Hook is closed up to
make a circle. Both are thus indicated, because that is not the
usual side/direction for an initial or final circle:
R:
spay spray, sub sobriety, stay stray,
sky screw
N:
pays pains, toes tones, choose
chance, Joe's John's
N:
guess
gains, rays rains, ways wanes, yes
yens
Medial
circles Between two straight strokes the hook should be
shown, the circle following the direction of the hook.
Medial circles use the direction that is most convenient, so the direction
cannot be reversed to indicate any hooks, unlike at the beginning
and ends of strokes (apart from the necessity to choose the
direction for legibility, it would also not be
clear whether the plain circle, if so used, meant an N Hook on the first stroke, or an R Hook
on the second stroke):
prosper destroy district excursion corkscrew
If there is a vowel after the N sound, use stroke
En so that it can be vocalised. The presence of the stroke N lets
you know there is a vowel, so vocalisation is normally unnecessary:
bones
bonus, tens tennis, chines Chinese, mines minus
The combination S-CH-R is not found standing alone
in any English word, therefore this
outline is used for the stroke downward Hay. Should such a
combination appear in a new word or name, it would be have to be written
with stroke Ar after the S-CH, or stroke Ess plus Cher if the word
began with a vowel. However, this sequence of sounds can be written
in the middle of a word, providing the S is shown inside the hook,
thus avoiding clashing with the downward Hay:
beseech beseecher
Abraham
Circle S can be added to final Stee and Ster loops
and Circle SES:
posts posters exercises
Top of page
Read first and last
In case of difficulty, mentally remove the circle
and then read the outline correctly, before mentally adding the S
back in:
pray spray, upper supper, play splay,
apple supply, pint pints, dove doves, roof roofs
fund funds, amount amounts, nine
nines, inner sooner, ever sever
Dot "con-" dot "-ing" and dash "-ings"
are read first and last, if present:
strict constrict, strain constrain, some
consume, dance dancing, rinsing rinsings
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When not to use
Use the stroke Ess or Zee when:
(a) there is an initial vowel before the S, or a final vowel
after it. The stroke can then be vocalised, although its presence lets you know there is a vowel involved:
sack ask, mess messy, seed acid,
sense essence
boss bossy, noise noisy, haze hazy,
slate isolate
(b) the S is the only consonant sound in the word
(because you need somewhere to put the vowel);
retain the stroke in derivatives:
ice sigh sighing sighs/size, sea
sea-level but
sleeve, sea-kale but
sickle
(c) the vowel between the S sound and the stroke
is a triphone, and in other places to distinguish from plurals:
signs science, virtues virtuous, heirs heiress, Jews Jewess, dangers
dangerous
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S versus Z sound
Initially, the sound is S; medially and finally the sound can be
S or Z:
seep piece/peas same mace/maze
Final NS and NZ sound after a curve are
differentiated by using:
- Hook N for NZ generally a plural, but not
always
- Stroke En for NS generally a word that can
be used as a verb, and therefore needs to have easy derivatives
NZ: fen fens
NS: fence fences fenced fencing fencer
NZ: vine vines
NS: evince evinces evinced evincing evincible
NZ: mean means
NS: mince minces minced
mincing mincer
NZ: nine nines
NS: announce announces announced announcing
announcer
NZ: line lines
NS: lance - lances lanced lancing lancer
lancet
Note:
lens lenses As lens is singular, despite its
Z sound, stroke N and Circle Ses have to be used for the plural, and
there is no such word as "lences" for the plural to clash with.
More examples of NS verses NZ:
thins thence, shines conscience, salines silence
Pauline's opulence, vines Venice, Essenes essence
Those with a linguistic interest may notice that words like mince/mints are
pronounced identically, but perceived differently. "Mints" is halved
to indicate the T, as the T sound is part of the original word; the
T sound in "mince" is the first part of the S sound (if you removed
it the word would sound like "minz"):
mint mints mince, fent fents fence, silent silents silence
comment comments commence, dent dents dense
assistant assistants assistance, chant chants chance
This is a timely reminder that (a) shorthand dictation
must be undertaken intelligently, and the meaning followed while writing,
and (b) Pitman's Shorthand is not designed to be entirely phonetic,
it only needs to indicate which word was spoken.
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Why Circle S and Ses include the Z sound
The S sound
can change into the Z sound in plurals and genitives, but when it
does, it is not changing the word into a different word. The circle is
used to represent both in order to preserve the general shape of the
outline and to allow its consistent use for plurals and genitives:
house (noun) = "hous"
houses (plural) = "houziz"
house (verb), hows (plural noun) = "houz"
house's (genitive) = "housiz"
Consistent and easy outlines are achieved, but at
the expense of some words such as mace/maze peace/peas where the
S and Z sounds signify different words. The longhand has solved
the problem, in only using the letter Z and sometimes letter C, to
show the difference. The shorthand has partly solved this problem in a
similar manner, with the aim of writing words briefly and reliably,
rather than strictly phonetically. Shorthand does not always
preserve the basic outline when forming derivatives, but as plurals
and genitives cover so many words, the advantages of allowing
Circles S to do duty for both S and Z sounds outweigh the
disadvantages.
An initial Z sound has to use the stroke, even
though no vowel comes before it:
zeal zebra zenith zero zest zinc
zip zone zoologist
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CIRCLE SES
This is a large circle, used in middle or at the
end of an outline, placed in the same way as Circle S, to represent:
S-S: basis necessary
necessity insist
thesis
S-Z: bases paces busses
faces voices losses masses taxes fixes
Z-S: possessive exhaust
exist resist
Z-Z: opposes dazes fuses
cruises muses mazes noses raises/razes
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When not to use
S-S sound at the beginning:
Circle Ses is never used at the beginning of an
outline, as that place
is taken by Circle Sway. Two initial S sounds should be shown with
the full stroke Ess followed by
Circle S. This makes an
easier outline and logical derivatives, as the formation of an angle is
avoided, its place being taken by the circle.
sauce sauces, cease ceases
ceasing, sighs/size sizes sizing sizeable, scissors secede
Do not follow longhand: Do not be misled by
words like those below, which do not contain the sounds of
s-vowel-s, they merely appear at first glance to do so in longhand;
they are in fact Circle S followed by Shun Hook:
decision possession
accession incision cessation/secession
Differentiation: Where the SeS or SeZ (with
short E) is part of the basic word (e.g. not a plural or a
verb S-ending) or if a diphthong or diphone is involved,
Circle S plus stroke Ess is generally preferred; this is because
there is such a large number of this type of word that a regular means of
differentiation is needed between them and plurals of shorter words.
The derivatives will generally keep the stroke Ess, but Circle Ses
is sometimes used where it is more convenient e.g. to avoid an
awkward joining or to shorten the outline. This is an example of speed/ease of writing being more
important that having "tidy" rules:
pose poses
but possess
possesses possessed
possessing possessive possessor
axe axes
but access accesses
accessed
accessing, excess excessive
boss bosses/boss's
but abscess abscesses, obsess
obsesses obsessive
raise raises, recess recesses
recessed recession recessive
gas gases
but gaseous
(this word is sometimes pronounced "gayshus")
Exceptions have been made for the following very common
words for the sake of convenience. The outlines are distinctive with Circle Ses, and
therefore they do not need to use the stroke S:
exercise exercising, success
successful, emphasise emphasised
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Basic words with vowel other than short E can
use the Circle Ses:
crisis analysis hypothesis
Words like those above form their plural by
a change of vowel. It would be good
practice to omit the singular vowel, and always insert the plural
one:
crises hypotheses
Some of these types of words have identical plurals and
verb endings in longhand, although pronounced differently, so vocalising the Circle Ses may be helpful:
Noun:
diagnosis diagnoses Verb:
diagnose diagnoses
Noun: analysis
analyses Verb:
analyse analyses
If the accent falls in different places, you can
indicate this by adding a small cross next to the vowel. This method
is useful for many pairs of words where the nouns and verbs have
different syllables accented. Ensure that the cross does not look like a
diphthong or diphone:
Plural noun analyses
Verb analyses
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With hooks
Circle Ses can be combined with N hook to straight
strokes, in the same way as Circle S:
bounces dances expenses
experiences
It cannot be combined with F/V hooks, or any hooks
on curved strokes.
When written medially it is impractical for it to be
followed by a hooked stroke.
Vowels
See Theory Vowels page for how to
vocalise
Circle Ses. In brief, the short vowel sound as in "pen" is not
indicated in Circle Ses, as it is the most common, but any other vowel between the S-S may be written inside
the circle.
Adding a third S
Circle S can be added onto the big Circle Ses by
continuing the motion, writing the small circle on the other side of
the stroke:
emphasises successes exercises censuses
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Other uses
The large circle can represent two circles:
-
In a few compound
words it can represent two S's that belong to separate parts of
the compound, even though only one S is sounded, to make the
outline more readable:
house-sparrow house-surgeon flaxseed
gas-stove bus-stop
-
In a few words with diss- and miss- to provide distinction or improve
readability, see Theory 18 Prefixes/Dis
and Mis
-
Circle S followed
by the stroke Hay circle, see
Theory 12
Hay/Large medial circle page.
Top of page
CIRCLE SWAY
This is a large circle, used at the beginning of an outline, placed
and read in the same way as Circle S, to represent the sound of SW.
-
Never used medially
or finally.
-
No vowel comes
before the "SW-" and not vowel comes between the S and the W.
-
Never vocalised, as
there is no vowel to show. The vowel that follows it is placed
against the stroke.
- The name "Sway" is for convenience any
vowel may come after it.
sweep swab sweat swayed/suede
Swedish switch swag
swivel swath swathe Swiss
Swaziland swish swim swamp swan swing
swear swirl swarm swarthy swerve swerved*
*Special outline, see
Distinguishing Outlines
2 Rule/served swerved
It can be placed on a halved or doubled stroke:
swept sweated swathed swooned swelter
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With hooks:
Circle Sway can be combined with R hook to straight
strokes, just like Circle S:
sweeper swabber sweater switcher
swagger
It is not combined with any other hooks.
When used with stroke Ell, it replaces the hook of
the Wel stroke:
ell well swell, low wallow swallow
It never combines with the hook on stroke Yay or
Way.
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When not to use:
Use Circle S on stroke Way:
(a) if the SW is the only consonant in the outline,
retaining it in derivatives:
sway sways swayer swaying
but
swayed/suθde for convenience,
swayback
(b) In the middle of a word or outline:
dissuade persuade persuasion
persuasive (suasion
and
suasive retain this form)
In a derivative, the SW may end up in the middle:
sweetened but
unsweetened, swerving but
unswerving
(e) before stroke Hay:
Swahili
In some words the S and W, although together, are
parts of separate words:
crosswise passway
password (word=short form)
glassware
(but ware/wear)
If a vowel comes before the SW, use stroke Ess and
medial semicircle W:
assuage a-swirl aswarm* Not
in shorthand dictionary
Use Circle S and medial semicircle W where it is not
convenient to use stroke Way:
Homeswell Harmsworth
Do not be misled by longhand spelling:
sward has
the W sound but
sword does not.
Do not be tempted, in a confused moment, to use
Circle Sway for these types of words where the sound is SKW:
square squash squiggle
Face shorthand learning square on,
squash the problems and master the squiggles!
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