How to memorize numbers with the major system

Digits are hard to remember because they mean nothing. The major system fixes that: each digit becomes a consonant sound, the sounds become words, and the words become pictures — which memory is very good at holding on to.

Try the memory drill

The code: one sound for each digit

Digit	Sound	How to remember it
0	s, z	z is the first sound of "zero"
1	t, d	a t has one downstroke
2	n	an n has two
3	m	an m has three
4	r	"four" ends in r
5	l	L is the Roman numeral for 50
6	j, sh, ch, soft g	a handwritten j curls like a 6
7	k, hard c, hard g	a K can be drawn from two 7s
8	f, v	a handwritten f has two loops, like an 8
9	p, b	a p is a 9 flipped round

Vowels, and the letters w, h and y, have no value. They're the glue you add to turn sounds into words.

Three rules that trip people up

Sounds, not spelling. "Phone" is f-n, so 82: the ph sounds like f. The b in "tomb" is silent, so tomb is t-m, 13.
A doubled letter is one sound. "Butter" is b-t-r, 914 — not 9114.
Skip anything that isn't a consonant sound — vowels, w, h, y and silent letters.

From numbers to pictures

Split a number into chunks of two or three digits and find a word for each. 32 is m-n: moon. 91 is b-t: bat. So 3291 becomes a bat flying across the moon — one picture instead of four digits.

Longer numbers become a short story, or a walk past places you know well. The first six digits of pi, 314159, split into 314 (m-t-r: meter) and 159 (t-l-p: tulip): picture a meter-long tulip.

A starter list, 0 to 20

People who use the system seriously give every number from 00 to 99 its own fixed word, so there's nothing to invent on the spot. Here are the first twenty-one to start from:

Number	Word
0	zoo
1	tie
2	Noah
3	ma
4	ray
5	law
6	shoe
7	cow
8	ivy
9	bee
10	toes

Number	Word
11	tot
12	tin
13	tomb
14	tire
15	tail
16	dish
17	tack
18	dove
19	tub
20	nose

Practise holding numbers

R3CK0N's Secret mode has a Memorize drill: a number flashes up, disappears, and you type it back. Easy flashes three or four digits, Medium five or six, and Hard seven or eight. Each number is shown for 0.6 seconds per digit — 1.8 seconds for three digits, 4.8 for eight — long enough to encode it, not long enough to stare at it.

The drill won't hand you the words. It trains the part that takes practice, which is converting on the fly: say the sounds to yourself as the number appears.

Frequently asked questions

How long does the major system take to learn?

The code is only ten sounds, and most people have it down in an evening. Converting without thinking about it takes regular practice — which is what the drill is for.

Is the major system the same as the phonetic system?

Yes. It's also called the phonetic number system or the phonetic mnemonic system.

Try five- and six-digit numbers