A mnemonic that maps each digit 0–9 to a consonant sound, so any number can be turned into a memorable word.

Raw digits are abstract and forgettable; concrete words — especially picturable nouns — are not. The Major System exploits this: you replace each digit with a consonant sound, then fill in vowels freely to build a word you can see in your mind.

• 47 → sounds r · k → rake
• 32 → sounds m · n → moon

Because the vowels are free, most numbers have several possible words — you pick whichever is most vivid. Recalling the word and decoding its consonants back into digits reproduces the number exactly.

Tip: It's also called the phonetic number system. Once the ten rules are automatic, encoding and decoding become nearly instant.

The sound — only the consonant sounds you actually pronounce count; spelling is irrelevant.

This is the single most important rule. Letters are just clues to sounds:

• "action" encodes 762 — /k/·/ʃ/·/n/ (k-sh-n), not the letters c-t-n.
• "daisy" encodes 10 — /d/·/z/, because the s is pronounced /z/.

Get this wrong and everything drifts. Always say the word out loud and listen for the consonant sounds, not the letters on the page.