Sunday,
August 23, 2015
6:09 PM
Numeral
|
Mnemonic and remarks
|
||
0
|
/s/, /z/
|
s, soft c,
z, x
(in xylophone and anxiety)
|
|
1
|
/t/, /d/, (/θ/,
/ð/)
|
t, d,
(th in thing
and this)
|
Upper case T and D
as well as lower case t and d have one vertical stroke each, as with the
numeral 1. The alveolar stops /t/ and
/d/ form a voiceless and voiced pair, as do the similar sounding dental
fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, though some variant systems may omit the latter pair.
|
2
|
/n/
|
n
|
Upper case N and lower case n have two vertical
strokes each.
|
3
|
/m/
|
m
|
Both upper case M and lower case m each have three
vertical strokes and look like the numeral 3
on its side.
|
4
|
/r/
|
r, l
(in colonel)
|
R is the last letter of four.
|
5
|
/l/
|
l
|
L is the Roman numeral for 50. Among the five
digits of one's left hand, the thumb
and index fingers also form an L.
|
6
|
/tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/,
/ʒ/
|
ch (in cheese
and chef), j, soft g, sh, c
(in cello and special), cz (in Czech), s
(in tissue and vision), sc (in fascist and schedule),
t (in picture,
ration and equation), tsch (in putsch), z
(in seizure)
|
Upper case G and lower case g look like the numeral 6
flipped horizontally and rotated 180° respectively. Lower case script j tends to have a lower loop, like the
numeral 6. The postalveolar affricates
/tʃ/ and /dʒ/ form a voiceless and voiced pair, as do the similar sounding
postalveolar fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/.
|
7
|
/k/, /ɡ/
|
k, hard c,
q, ch
(in loch), hard g
|
Both upper case K and lower case k look like two small 7s
on their sides. The velar stops /k/ and /g/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
|
8
|
/f/, /v/
|
f, ph
(in phone), v
|
Lower case script f, which tends to have an upper and lower
loop, looks like a figure-8. The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/
form a voiceless and voiced pair.
|
9
|
/p/, /b/
|
p, b,
gh (in hiccough)
|
Lowercase p and b
look like the numeral 9 flipped
horizontally and rotated 180° respectively. Also, labial stops /p/ and /b/
form a voiceless and voiced pair.
|
Numeral
|
Mnemonic and remarks
|
||
0
|
/s/, /z/
|
s, soft c,
z, x
(in xylophone and anxiety)
|
|
1
|
/t/,
/d/, (/θ/, /ð/)
|
t, d,
(th in thing
and this)
|
Upper
case T and D as well as lower case t and d have one vertical stroke each, as with
the numeral 1. The alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ form a voiceless and voiced pair,
as do the similar sounding dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, though some variant systems may omit the latter pair.
|
2
|
/n/
|
n
|
Upper case N and lower case n have two vertical
strokes each.
|
3
|
/m/
|
m
|
Both upper case M and lower case m each have three
vertical strokes and look like the numeral 3
on its side.
|
4
|
/r/
|
r, l
(in colonel)
|
R is the last letter of four.
|
5
|
/l/
|
l
|
L is the Roman numeral for 50. Among the five
digits of one's left hand, the thumb
and index fingers also form an L.
|
6
|
/tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/,
/ʒ/
|
ch (in cheese
and chef), j, soft g, sh, c
(in cello and special), cz (in Czech), s
(in tissue and vision), sc (in fascist and schedule),
t (in picture,
ration and equation), tsch (in putsch), z
(in seizure)
|
Upper case G and lower case g look like the numeral 6
flipped horizontally and rotated 180° respectively. Lower case script j tends to have a lower loop, like the
numeral 6. The postalveolar affricates
/tʃ/ and /dʒ/ form a voiceless and voiced pair, as do the similar sounding
postalveolar fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/.
|
7
|
/k/, /ɡ/
|
k, hard c,
q, ch
(in loch), hard g
|
Both upper case K and lower case k look like two small 7s
on their sides. The velar stops /k/ and /g/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
|
8
|
/f/, /v/
|
f, ph
(in phone), v
|
Lower case script f, which tends to have an upper and lower
loop, looks like a figure-8. The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/
form a voiceless and voiced pair.
|
9
|
/p/, /b/
|
p, b,
gh (in hiccough)
|
Lowercase p and b
look like the numeral 9 flipped
horizontally and rotated 180° respectively. Also, labial stops /p/ and /b/
form a voiceless and voiced pair.
|
The following mnemonic hints make it a lot easier
to remember the table. One overall pattern is that when more than one letter is
associated with a number, the letters sound similar (for example, "p"
and "b" for "9")
- 1 - a typewritten "t" or "d" has just 1 downstroke
- 2 - a typewritten "n" has 2 downstrokes
- 3 - a typewritten "m" has 3 downstrokes
- 4 - the number 4 ends in the letter "r"
- 5 - hold out your left hand palm-outward and thumb out at a 90 degree angle - the five fingers form an "L" shape
- 6 - a "J" looks like a backward 6
- 7 - a "K" can be made from two back-to-back 7's
- 8 - a lower-case, written f looks like an 8
- 9 - looks like a backward "p" or an upside-down "b"
- 0 - the word "zero" begins with the letter "z"
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Remembering
Numbers - Phonetic-Number Method
Remembering numbers is hard. But if you want to
build a great memory, you need a way to memorize them.
Fortunately, there is a memory trick you can use
for long numbers. It's called the Phonetic Number system (or Major system).
It was developed over 300 years ago
and is one of the most powerful of the memory
systems that use imagination and association.
Why is remembering numbers important? Imagine
your boss asks you to give a sales presentation to the president of your
company.
If the presentation includes sales figures and
statistics, would you rather shuffle through papers or amaze everyone by
spitting out the numbers from memory?
That's just one example, but if you need to
remember passwords, phone extensions, mathematical constants, street addresses,
product codes, Bible verses, or anything else numeric, then invest some time
learning the Phonetic Number system.
Note: For a simpler way to remember
long numbers temporarily, check out the Direct
Chunking method.
Phonetic Number
System
The Phonetic Number system is a substitute alphabet for changing numbers to letters.
The reason this helps in remembering numbers is due to the effectiveness of
"chunking" and memory.
For example, if I asked you to memorize the
phrase, "Four score and seven years ago", you could easily do it. You
could repeat it back perfectly every time - even though that phrase consists of
30 letters and spaces in a very specific order.
Now try memorizing the 30-digit number "8567
13543 887 54365 23678 369". Pretty impossible, right? But both the phrase
and the number contain 30 characters, so what's the difference?
The reason one is simple to memorize and the
other is impossible results from the chunking effect of the alphabet when
letters are used to form words. Letters are clumped into words, and words are
clumped into meaningful phrases.
So an incredibly powerful trick for remembering
numbers would be finding a way to convert the numbers to letters. Then you
could take the random 30-digit number and turn it into a series of words or
phrases. This is exactly how the Phonetic Number system works.
Number to Letter
Conversion
Here is the conversion table. To be able to use
the Phonetic Number system for remembering numbers, you must first memorize
this table (sorry). It's actually not as hard as it looks.
- 1 = is the "t" or "d" sound
- 2 = is the "n" sound
- 3 = is the "m" sound
- 4 = is the "r" sound
- 5 = is the "l" sound
- 6 = is the "j", "ch", or "sh" sound
- 7 = is the "k" or hard "g" sound
- 8 = is the "f" or "v" sound
- 9 = is the "p" or "b" sound
- 0 = is the "z" or "s" sound
The following mnemonic hints make it a lot easier
to remember the table. One overall pattern is that when more than one letter is
associated with a number, the letters sound similar (for example, "p"
and "b" for "9")
- 1 - a typewritten "t" or "d" has just 1 downstroke
- 2 - a typewritten "n" has 2 down strokes
- 3 - a typewritten "m" has 3 down strokes
- 4 - the number 4 ends in the letter "r"
- 5 - hold out your left hand palm-outward and thumb out at a 90 degree angle - the five fingers form an "L" shape
- 6 - a "J" looks like a backward 6
- 7 - a "K" can be made from two back-to-back 7's
- 8 - a lower-case, written f looks like an 8
- 9 - looks like a backward "p" or an upside-down "b"
- 0 - the word "zero" begins with the letter "z"
You should be able to memorize this list with
about 10 minutes of practice.
One more point. Notice that all of the letter
equivalents are consonants. Vowels are not assigned to a number in this method.
Nor are the consonants "w", "h", or "y" (w-h-y).
This is a good thing, because it means you can
use the vowels and the three unused consonants in your word equivalents however
you like.
How to Use the
Method
I'll illustrate the use of the Phonetic Number
system for remembering numbers with a couple simple examples. After studying
these examples to see how it's done, be brave and try it out on something you
need to remember!
Example 1 -
Memorizing a 6-Digit Passcode. Let's say you work at a company where
every employee is assigned a unique passcode that must be punched on a keypad
when entering and exiting the company headquarters. They change the code
periodically too, just to keep things interesting, and they don't want you to
write the number down (for security reasons).
Here is your new code: 954392. Remembering
numbers as long as this one can be difficult, but hold on: using the Phonetic
Number memory system, this number could be translated to one or more words
using these number-to-letter conversions:
9 = p, b
|
5 = l
|
4 = r
|
3 = m
|
9 = p, b
|
2 = n
|
So if you've memorized the conversion table
above, you should be able to think of a catchy little phrase. Maybe "POOL
ROOM BUN", or "BOIL RUM PAN", or any of several other
possibilities.
Then you would take your silly phrase and quickly
think of a visual association to remember it by. For instance, "POOL ROOM
BUN" might make you think of a giant hotdog in a big bun playing billiards
in a pool hall.
4
(For more information about using
association and substitute words, see the Using
Association page.)
You could associate the actual keypad by the door
at work with a hotdog bun as well. Then, each time you were about to push the
buttons on the keypad to get in the building, you would automatically think
"hotdog bun".
Perhaps the keys on the keypad are little hotdog
buns. This thought would remind you of the hotdog with the big bun playing pool
(POOL ROOM BUN = 954392).
Example 2 - The
Sales Presentation. Now let's suppose you are a salesperson for Widgets,
Inc. Your supervisor has asked you to present the latest quarterly sales
figures to your company president.
You want to make sure and lock those dollar
amounts in your head so you don't mess up the presentation.
Here are the sales numbers: Widget A - $53,000;
Widget B - $82,000; and Widget C - $19,000.
Now, if you just relied on rote memorization, you
might not only forget the actual sales figures, but you could get confused
about which figure goes with which widget.
So let's combine the Alphabet
Peg memory system (sound-alike version) with the
Phonetic Number system to make sure that doesn't happen.
In the sound-alike Alphabet Peg system, the
equivalents for A, B, and C are as follows:
- A - Hay
- B - Bee
- C - See
That's easy enough. Now for the numbers. Since
all three amounts were rounded to the nearest thousand, we can forget about all
the zeroes, since you will automatically remember that part of the number (you
will). That leaves you with memorizing the numbers 53, 82, and 19.
Using the Phonetic Number conversion chart, we
have:
- 53 = l, m
- 82 = f/v, n
- 19 = t, p/b
So one possible conversion might be:
- 53 = lame
- 82 = fan
- 19 = tape
Putting everything together, we have:
- hay lame
- bee fan
- see tape
So here's what you could visualize:
- A big yellow hay stack with arms, legs, and a face (i.e., personified), walking down the road with a cane and limping (i.e., a lame haystack). This gives you $53,000 (53 = l,m) as the sales figure for Widget A (A=hay).
This may seem silly, but think about it for
second - as long as you remember your image of a lame haystack, there is no way you can forget the sales figure for
Widget A or confuse the amount with another widget's sales figures!
- A swarm of bees flying into a fan. (I'll let you visualize that one on your own.) That gives $82,000 (82 = f,n) as the sales figure for Widget B (B=bee).
- A long piece of silver duct tape being wrapped around your eyes (ouch!). That gives $19,000 (19=t,p) as the sales figure for Widget C (C=see).
It should be clear at this point that the
Phonetic Number system really works, and not only that it is kind of fun. Your
next steps should be to review the Number to Letter conversion chart above.
Then put it into practice at work, at school, and in your everyday life with
the long numbers you need to remember!
Home > Memory
Systems > Remembering Numbers
In memorizing a Bible verse such as Psalm 85:6, first copy it --
Psalm 85:6
WTnru.atTpmriT?
Psalm 85:6
or retaining the marks of punctuation:
Psalm 85:6 WTnrua:tTpmriT? --
Psalm 85:6
or
WTnru.a:tTpmriT?
or if you like, just:
Wtnruattpmrit? Psalm 85:6
In memorizing a Bible verse such as Psalm 85:6, first copy it --
Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?Then take the first letter of each word, WTnruatTpmriT? Notive that I change the lower case "t" to an upper case "T" because it stands for God.
or if you want additional help, use a period (.) after any word ending in "s", here "us". So that the above example will look like this:Psalm 85:6
WTnru.atTpmriT?
Psalm 85:6
or retaining the marks of punctuation:
Psalm 85:6 WTnrua:tTpmriT? --
Psalm 85:6
or
WTnru.a:tTpmriT?
or if you like, just:
Wtnruattpmrit? Psalm 85:6
