This article is intended for those who already know the basics of the Phonetic Alphabet

It would be silly, if not impossible, to try to find a familiar phrase or sentence to cover any series of numbers.

But that is not how the system works. I’ve used these phrases only to show you that if you know the Phonetic Alphabet, familiar, concrete, easy-to-visualize things will tell you the number you want to remember.

You’ve learned a few other things about the Phonetic Alphabet by looking at the phrases and their “number transpositions.”

You’ve learned that vowels (a,e,i,o,u) have no number value. Neither do the letters w,h,y (they do not form consonant sounds).

A double letter represents one digit because it makes one sound. Look at “hippopotamus.” That transposes to 9 (the double P makes one sound), then another 9,1,3,0. “Bellow” transposes to 95, not 955.

Silent letters are ignored. Knee = 2, not 72; knife = 28, not 728. The K is silent. Bomb = 93, not 939; the second b is silent.

Q makes the “k” sound, so it’s 7. X transposes according to how it’s pronounced in a word. In “anxious” the x is pronounced “k, sh” so it transposes to 76.

It’s the sound, not the letter itself, that we’re interested in. That’s all you have to know.

I Cannot Visualize 14741

Neither can most people. But I can visualize myself taking a truck ride. To me—and shortly, to you—”truck ride” means 14741! Visualizing a truck ride is the same as visualizing 14741.

Because: T = 1, R = 4, K (ck—one sound) = 7, R = 4, D = 1.

T R U CK RIDE
1 4 7 4 1

Dark route, track rat, the (consider th the same as T or 1) rack red, and so forth, would all transpose to 14741. So would the one word, triggered.

The word attention transposes to 1262. The double t makes one sound, the “t” sound for 1. Then the “n” sound for 2. The next t does not make a “t” sound; in this word it makes a”sh” sound—that’s 6. And then the final n for 2.

Can you come up with a word or phrase for 3475?

For 3475 you need these sounds, in this order: M,R,K,L. Form the sounds in your mind

Miracle is fine. Or, mare kill—more coal—mere gal—my rack low—mower coil—murky law—mark well.

What word or phrase would fit each of the following with our Phonetic Alphabet?

957-
91421-
0014-
2750-
62154-
941-
721-
821292-
1-
994-

957-black, pluck, buy lake
91421—butternut, better not, bitter nut
0014—sister, size tyre, cyst raw
2750-necklace, nickels, neck less, no class
62154—chandelier, giant lure, giant liar
941—bread, brat, broad, poured, bright, beard
721—can’t, count, gaunt, candy
821292-fountain pen, found no bone, fine tin pan, phoned
in bin
1—tie, die, dye, eat, hat
994-paper, pauper, beeper, baby hair, piper

Now that you know the ten “pairs,” you only have to say mentally those sounds the numbers represent. You’ll almost automatically form words or phrases. The vowels act as “wild” sounds; they can be used anywhere to help form words since they don’t represent numbers.

You can remember this 12-digit number—522641639527 —in seconds by applying two of the techniques I’ve taught you. The first, of course, is the Phonetic Alphabet.

522
linen
641
shirt
639
jump
527
link

These four words can be pictured and can only represent, or transpose to, their respective number groups. But how will you remember the words themselves?

Simple. Apply the Link System of Memory! Associate linen to shirt. Easy. Visualize a shirt made of linen. Shirt to jump—see a shirt jumping. Jump to a (chain) link. See chain links jumping. Or—Link linen to shirt to jumble to neck. You’ve remembered that number! And you also know it backward. Try it.