4929835

Let's say your new colleague's phone number is 4929835 and you would like to find some easy way to remember this number. You stare at the phone pad and tinker for a while but don't see much, or maybe you feel like you have better things to do with your time.

So you point your favourite web browser it at this site, enter the phone number and DialABC Word Search tells you this:

4 GHI

9 WXY

2 ABC

9 WXY

8 TUV

3 DEF

5 JKL

The first two digits in that number spell either "ix" (the roman numeral 9) or "Hz", which is an abbreviation for "Hertz", the scientific unit for frequency. The next four digits (2983) spell the word "byte". The last three digits also spell the word "Tel", an abbreviation of the word "Telephone", which just happens to be in the DialABC English dictionary.

Also, notice how the words "byte" and "Tel" overlap. This means that if you are looking for a sequence of words for this phone number, you can use one word or the other, but not both. Looking at the table, you can now pick the words that have some signifficance to you and get a combination that is easy to remember. Maybe your friend likes to hold conference calls, so you decide to remember their phone number as "4-WAY-TEL". Another choice would be 49-BYTE-5, but maybe something about 49-BYTE-5 has personal signifficance to you and makes that mnemonic a better choice. Finally, you could use "4-WA-WV-FL" because maybe you and your friend once drove across America, visiting Washingon state, West Virginia, and Florida. Good mnemonics often have a connection to one's own personal history. This is why you will best be able to decide which one works best for you.

NE1-4-T (Anyone for tea)?

Sometimes, one can make up some pretty amazing mnemonmics by allowing the kinds of abbreviations and contractions often seen on Vanity license plates. Here is one such example: 269-1337

2 ABC

6 MN

9 WXY

1

3 DEF

3 DEF

7 PRS

The best one here by far (I think) is "Boy Wonder" spelled BOY-1-DER. This example also illustrates one important point: when there is a 1 or a 0 in the middle of the phone number, it becomes difficult to find good mnemonics, and quite often one will have to use these kinds of abbreviations and contractions to find a good mnemonic.