THE ART OF MEMORY · LESSON 7 OF 30 · PART II: NUMBERS

The Major System

A code in which every digit is a sound. Learn ten sounds and any number can be spoken as words, and then seen.

Memory hook: brass numerals fly from a lost door code and turn into creatures: a snake, a mummy, a rooster, a whale.

← Numbers Become Pictures  ·  The whole course  ·  People With Numbers →

In this lesson: you will learn the ten consonant sounds of the Major System, turn two-digit and four-digit numbers into words, and read words back into numbers.
Where we left off
In the shape system, what are 2, 4 and 8?
A swan, a sailboat and a snowman.
In the rhyme system, what are 3, 5 and 7?
A tree, a hive and heaven.
What is the weakness of both systems?
They need one picture per digit, so long numbers become long strings of pictures.

Four digits and a locked door

You are standing outside a rented flat at eleven at night, and the door has a keypad. The owner wrote the code on a card, and you have just watched the card blow out of your hand into the canal. The owner's phone is switched off. You are quite sure the code was four digits. It might have begun with an eight.

You can see the card in your mind: black ink, a very ordinary number. But you did not turn it into anything. It was just four digits, and four digits are very easy to let go.

Why can't you remember the door code?
You never turned it into a picture or word. It stayed as four meaningless digits.
Talk about it. What numbers do you have in your head right now: phone numbers, codes, dates? Which ones do you remember, and why?

The idea that fixes it is old. In 1634 a French mathematician, Pierre Hérigone, published a huge textbook in Paris and included in it a code that let letters stand for digits, so that a number could be read as a word. Over the next two centuries others improved it. In the nineteenth century a Polish army officer living in Britain, Major Beniowski, lectured on it; some writers connect his rank with the system's name.

By the twentieth century the code had become the standard way of turning numbers into words. People call it the Major System, and it is the base for most of the number methods you will meet in the rest of this part.

What is the Major System?
A code in which each digit stands for a consonant sound, so that numbers can be turned into words.
Talk about it. Why do you think this idea has survived for four hundred years?

The key idea is surprisingly small. Do not give each digit a picture; give each digit a sound. Ten digits, ten sounds. Then any number becomes a string of sounds, and you fill the gaps with vowels, which are free, to make a real word.

The word tie contains one consonant sound, t, so it means 1. Moon has m and n, so it means 32. Once you have a word, you can see it, put it in a scene and keep it. When you need the number back, you read the consonants. The door code that blew away would be a few seconds' work.

What does 'vowels are free' mean?
Vowels (and w, h, y) carry no number, so you can add them to make real words out of consonant sounds.
Talk about it. Try it: how would you turn the number 32 into a word? What picture does it make?

Words worth knowing

Say what you think each one means, then open it.

a speech sound made by stopping or narrowing the breath, like t, n or m. Not a, e, i, o or u.
a speech sound like a, e, i, o, u, made with an open mouth. In this system vowels are free.
to do with sounds. A phonetic code goes by how a word sounds, not how it is spelled.
not pronounced. The k in knee is silent.
a system of signs that stands for something else.
to turn a code back into the original. Decode the word into digits.

Hérigone's code appears in his Cursus mathematicus (Paris, 1634). The history is told here briefly and in our own words.

Ten digits, ten sounds

Each digit stands for one consonant sound. Learn the ten and you can say any number as a word.

DigitSoundWhy it fits
0s, zZero begins with a z sound.
1t, d, thA printed t has one downstroke.
2nAn n has two downstrokes.
3mAn m has three downstrokes.
4rThe word four ends with r.
5lL is the Roman numeral for 50, and a hand held up with the thumb out makes an L.
6j, sh, ch, soft gA reversed 6 looks like a j.
7k, hard g, qTwo sevens make a k.
8f, vA handwritten f looks like an 8.
9p, bA 9 is a mirror image of p.

The rules

  • Sounds, not spelling. Knee is n (2). Phone is f-n (82). Judge is j-j (66). Cake is k-k (77).
  • Vowels, w, h and y are free. They carry no number. Use them to build words.
  • A doubled letter counts once when you hear one sound. Hammer is h-m-r: 34 (m once).
  • Soft and hard letters follow the sound. City starts with s (0); cat starts with k (7).
Encode 1066
The Battle of Hastings: 1066.
Split10 and 66.
Sounds10 = t + s. 66 = j + j (sh/ch/j).
Words10 → TOES. 66 → JUDGE.
SceneA judge sits on a throne made of giant toes, which wiggle and tickle him, so he laughs and drops his gavel.
The picture: A judge on a throne made of huge wiggling toes, laughing so hard that he drops his gavel, while Norman soldiers march past.
Encode 1776
1776: split into 17 and 76.
Sounds17 = t/d + k/g. 76 = k/g + j/sh.
Words17 → TACK (or DOG, DECK). 76 → CAGE (or CASH, COACH).
SceneA giant tack pins a cage to the sky, and the cage is full of bank notes, hundreds of them pouring out.
The picture: A giant tack pinning a swinging cage to the sky while bank notes pour out of it.

Reading words back

Decoding is the same thing the other way. Moon has m and n: 3 and 2, so 32. Bike has b and k: 97. Wolf has l and f (the w is free): 58. Tree has t and r: 14.

sounds, not letters.
vowels are free.
that is all.

Choosing words is the creative part. For 10 you can pick toes, tux, dice, daisy. Choose the most vivid one for you. In the next lessons you will build a full list from 00 to 99.

Say it aloud. Say the ten digit sounds aloud, in order, and say your own word for the numbers 11, 22 and 33.

Now you build

Have a go before you open any answer. A rough attempt teaches you more than a perfect model you only read.

The code

Type the sound for each digit.
2 =
3 =
4 =
5 =
9 = p or

Decode these words

Match each word to its number.
moon
bike
wolf
tree
phone

Encode 1945

1945 (the end of the Second World War). Split it into 19 and 45. Find consonant sounds, make two words and put them in a vivid scene.
19 = t/d + p/b: TUB or TAPE. 45 = r + l: RAIL or ROLE. A huge tub sits on a railway line, and soldiers are throwing their uniforms into it and dancing out as the train goes through.

Encode 1969

1969 (the Moon landing). Split into 19 and 69 and make a scene.
19 = TAPE (t, p). 69 = SHIP (sh, p) or CHIP. A huge ship is wrapped in sticky tape, floating up into space, the crew taping flags to the stars.

A number of your own

Pick a four-digit number you need (a year of birth, a code, part of a phone number). Split into two pairs. Write the sounds, the words and the scene.
There is no single answer. Check that every consonant sound in each word matches a digit, and that the vowels are the only free letters.
Which number does the word KNIFE spell?

Say it fast

Say the digit sounds, from 0 to 9, as quickly as you can. Then say them backwards. Repeat twice.
1:00

Drill

Flash cards

Say the answer first, then tap the card.

tap to turn over

Quick quiz

What number does the word SUN stand for?
What sound is 6?
Which letters are free in the Major System?
How do you decode the word PHONE?

The memory challenge

Memory challenge: four years as words

These eight words encode 1066, 1776, 1945 and 1989: toes judge | tack cage | tub rail | tap fib. Learn them in order as a story, then type them. Afterwards, decode them back to digits.

Make one story of the eight words. Toes and a judge; a tack and a cage; a tub and a rail; a tap and a fib.

0:00

The list has gone. Type what you remember, one item per line.

Look back

These reach back to earlier rooms. Answer in your head or out loud, then check.

Lesson 6 · Numbers Become Pictures. In the shape system, what is 6? And in the rhyme system?
Shape: a cherry. Rhyme: sticks.
Lesson 6 · Numbers Become Pictures. Why is a number hard to remember?
A number is not a picture, so the mind has nothing to hold on to.
Lesson 5 · Links and Stories. Why should each link in a chain involve only two items?
Each link is a simple picture of two things interacting; the chain is made of overlapping pairs.
Lesson 4 · The Memory Palace. What does 'method of loci' mean?
Using places (loci) in a fixed route to store pictures in order.

What I can do now

A thought to keep

Which pairs of digits are going to be hardest to make words for? Do you already have words you would use for 00 to 09?

Saved on this device as you type.

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