If a word or syllable begins with more than one consonant you can include all of those consonants in the one stroke. The left hand side of the steno keyboard is designed specifically to cater for multiple consonants working together.
For example: It is extremely rare in English for another consonant to preceed an "S" at the beginning of a word so it is placed at the far left of the keyboard. An "S" can be followed by a "T" so it is placed to the right of "S", but not too far, because several letters can follow "T" such as "H", "R" and "W". You can see how beautifully the steno keyboard has been design around the sounds of the English language.
In the case that the word begins with a letter that isn't on the steno keyboard, simply use the chord as learnt in the Basics section.
For example: "SM" is made by pressing "S" and the chord for "M".
Here are a few examples of word beginnings.
| Letters | Steno | |
|---|---|---|
| SC | SK | |
| ST | ST | |
| TH | TH | |
| WH | WH | |
| FR | TPR | |
| FL | TPHR | |
| BL | PWHR |
Click Next to practice word beginnings