Reading shorthand starts with identifying which system you’re looking at, since each one uses different symbols, rules, and logic. The three most common systems are Gregg, Pitman, and Teeline, and they look nothing alike on the page. Whether you’re trying to decode old notes from a grandparent’s desk or learn to read a system from scratch, the approach depends entirely on which set of symbols you’re dealing with.
Identify the System First
Before you can read a single word, you need to figure out which shorthand system produced the notes. Each system has distinct visual fingerprints that are easy to spot once you know what to look for.
Pitman shorthand is the easiest to identify. It uses a mix of thick and thin strokes, and that variation in line width is its defining feature. Thick strokes represent voiced consonant sounds (like B or D), while thin strokes represent their unvoiced counterparts (like P or T). You’ll also notice small dots and dashes placed near the main strokes. Those are vowel marks, and they’re often omitted entirely in fast writing. If you see strokes that vary in heaviness with tiny marks sprinkled around them, you’re looking at Pitman.
Gregg shorthand uses smooth, flowing curves that look almost like cursive loops. Every stroke has the same thickness. Vowels appear as small hooks and circles attached directly to the consonant strokes rather than as separate dots. The overall appearance is rounder and more connected than Pitman, with lines that flow in one continuous motion.
Teeline shorthand is based on simplified versions of the standard English alphabet, so some letters are still partially recognizable. A “d” looks like a horizontal dash, a “u” is a small curve. The symbols are less abstract than Gregg or Pitman, making Teeline the system most commonly taught to journalism students today.
How Gregg Shorthand Works
Gregg is phonetic, meaning it records the sounds of speech rather than the spelling. The word “cat” is written as “kat,” and “knee” is written as “ne.” Silent letters disappear entirely. If a letter isn’t pronounced, it isn’t written.
Consonants are arranged in pairs based on similar sounds and distinguished by stroke length. A short curve might represent one sound while a longer version of the same curve represents a related sound. All consonant strokes are written forward, from left to right, except for a few (like T, D, and TH) that are struck upward from the writing line.
Gregg uses twelve distinct vowel sounds organized into four groups of three. Within each group, the short sound is unmarked, the medium sound gets a dot, and the long sound gets a short dash. This marking system stays consistent across all vowel groups, so once you learn the pattern for one group, the logic applies everywhere. Vowels appear as circles and hooks placed inside or alongside consonant curves. At the beginning or end of a single curve, the circle sits inside the curve. On straight strokes, the circle is written with a rightward motion.
One major speed trick in Gregg is phrasing: joining simple, common words together into a single connected outline. Instead of lifting the pen between “I” and “will,” you’d write them as one flowing shape.
How Pitman Shorthand Works
Pitman is also phonetic, but it encodes sound information in ways Gregg doesn’t. The thickness of a stroke, its direction, its angle, and even its vertical position on the line all carry meaning.
Horizontal and downward strokes come in pairs: one thick, one thin. The thick version represents a voiced sound and the thin version its unvoiced partner. This means the direction and angle of every stroke is fixed. Unlike regular handwriting, there’s no slanting or personal style in Pitman. A stroke pointing the wrong direction becomes a different sound entirely.
Vowel sounds are written as small dots and dashes placed next to the consonant strokes. In practice, experienced Pitman writers often skip vowels entirely and rely on context and the shape of the consonant outline to determine the word. This is why reading someone else’s Pitman notes can be challenging: the faster the writer, the fewer vowels they included.
Spacing matters too. Outlines packed too closely together can create confusion because proximity between two outlines is sometimes used as an abbreviating device, indicating a “con” syllable at the beginning of the second word. Writers are advised to keep no more than three consecutive up or down strokes in a row to prevent outlines from drifting into the line above or below.
How Teeline Shorthand Works
Teeline takes a fundamentally different approach from Gregg and Pitman. Instead of inventing entirely new symbols for sounds, it simplifies the letters of the English alphabet into streamlined forms designed so you never have to lift your pen from the page.
The core rule for reading Teeline is that vowels are omitted unless they begin a word. The word “cat” becomes “ct,” and “the cat sat on the mat” is compressed dramatically. Your brain fills in the missing vowels using context, which works surprisingly well in practice. If you see “ct” in a sentence about animals, your brain reads “cat” without hesitation.
Because individual outlines can carry multiple meanings, context is essential. The symbol for “d” (a horizontal dash) can represent “do,” “day,” or “to” depending on where it sits on the page. The symbols for “t” and “d” look similar to each other, but surrounding words usually make the intended letter obvious. Size also matters: write a “u” too large and it becomes a “w.”
Teeline also combines common word pairs into single symbols. In the phrase “on the,” a single outline replaces both words. This kind of shortcut is one reason Teeline remains popular with journalists who need to capture speech quickly during interviews.
Brief Forms Speed Things Up
Every shorthand system uses brief forms: pre-set abbreviations for the most common words in English. These are the shorthand equivalent of texting abbreviations, and memorizing them is essential for both writing and reading shorthand fluently.
In Gregg shorthand, for example, the word “is” (and “his”) is written as a simple “s” stroke. “The” is just the “th” outline. “Have” becomes “v,” “would” becomes “d,” and “you” or “your” becomes “u.” Common words like “can” (written as “k”), “for” (written as “f”), and “will” (written as “l”) each reduce to a single stroke. Gregg’s Pre-Anniversary edition contains dozens of these brief forms, and later editions added even more.
If you’re trying to read someone’s shorthand notes, brief forms are often the first symbols to decode because they appear so frequently. Once you can recognize “the,” “and,” “is,” “for,” and “have,” you’ll start seeing patterns across the page that help you crack the rest.
Deciphering Old or Unknown Shorthand
If you’ve inherited shorthand notes and don’t know who wrote them or which system they used, start with the visual identification tips above. Thick and thin strokes point to Pitman. Flowing curves of uniform thickness suggest Gregg. Simplified alphabet-like forms indicate Teeline.
Once you’ve identified the system, get a reference chart for that system’s alphabet and brief forms. Compare individual strokes in the notes to the chart, working letter by letter through shorter words first. Look for repeated symbols, since common words like “the,” “and,” and “is” will appear constantly. Once you identify one or two of these high-frequency words, you’ll have anchor points that help you decode surrounding text.
Context clues are your most powerful tool. When two symbols look nearly identical, ask yourself which word makes more sense in the sentence. The National Archives recommends this same approach for deciphering ambiguous handwriting in historical documents: compare similar letters throughout the document, since the same writer tends to form letters consistently. If a symbol looks like one thing at the top of the page and the same thing halfway down, that consistency confirms your reading.
Be realistic about what you can decode. Fast shorthand writers routinely drop vowels, skip brief forms they’ve personalized, and develop their own shortcuts over time. Professional shorthand from a trained stenographer is usually more standardized and readable than personal notes dashed off during a meeting. If a word is truly unrecoverable, mark it and move on. You’ll often figure it out later once the surrounding sentences give you enough context.
Where to Practice
The fastest way to get comfortable reading any shorthand system is to learn to write it, even at a basic level. Writing trains your brain to recognize the strokes in reverse. Free resources exist online for all three major systems. Gregg shorthand has a complete set of lesson units available through open-source archives, walking you through strokes, vowels, and brief forms one unit at a time. Pitman and Teeline courses are available through shorthand enthusiast sites and some journalism training programs.
Start with the alphabet and brief forms for your chosen system. Practice reading published shorthand passages (many textbooks include reading exercises with answer keys) before tackling unknown handwritten notes. Once you can reliably read printed shorthand at a comfortable pace, someone else’s handwriting becomes a matter of adapting to their personal style rather than learning the system from scratch.