What is the Major system?
The Major system, or major mnemonic system, turns numbers into words. Each digit from 0 to 9 stands for a consonant sound. Fill in vowels and any number becomes a word you can picture: 31 is m and t, so mat.
Ten digits, ten sounds
This is the whole system. Most people learn it in an evening, helped by the little reasons in the third column.
| digit | sound | to remember it |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | s, z | z is for zero |
| 1 | t, d | t has one downstroke |
| 2 | n | n has two downstrokes |
| 3 | m | m has three downstrokes |
| 4 | r | four ends in r |
| 5 | l | L is the Roman numeral 50 |
| 6 | j, sh, ch | a J turned around looks like 6 |
| 7 | k, hard g | a K is two 7s back to back |
| 8 | f, v | a cursive f has two loops, like 8 |
| 9 | p, b | P is a mirrored 9 |
Four rules for 00 to 99
Only what you hear counts. "Knee" is just n, so 2. "Phone" starts with an f sound, so 8 2. "Cent" has a soft c, so 0 2 1.
A, e, i, o, u and the sounds w, h and y carry no number. Add them wherever you need them to turn consonants into a word.
"Butter" is b, t, r: 9 1 4. You count the sound once, however many letters spell it.
21 could be net, Nate or nut. It does not matter which, as long as 21 is always the same one. A fixed list is what makes recall fast.
Twenty digits of pi as ten words
Pi starts 3.1415926535 8979323846. Take those first 20 digits, the 3 included, two at a time, and give each pair its word:
Now link them into a story: a mat with a rat on it, biting its lip... Better still, put two or three words at each stop of a memory palace so the order takes care of itself.
Using the Major system with PAO
The Major system gives you one image per number. A PAO system gives each number three: a Person, an Action and an Object, so three numbers become one scene and every stop in your palace holds six digits instead of two.
The two work well together. The Major sounds are a good way to come up with your PAO images: for 21, N and T suggest Nate as the person, knitting as the action and a net as the object. The PAO Builder shows the Major sounds as a hint next to every number from 00 to 99.
Try it on random digits
The number drill deals out random digits in pairs, from 20 up to 100 at a time. Memorize them, recall them in order and time yourself. No signup needed.