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Pegword Mnemonic Memory Method

Using the pegword mnemonic method to remember phone numbers and other numeric sequences.

Pegword Mnemonic Memory Method

To use this mnemonic you will need to learn a nonsense rhyme off by heart. Take a few moments to memorize this.

  • One is a bun
  • Two is a shoe
  • Three is a tree
  • Four is a door
  • Five is a hive
  • Six is sticks
  • Seven is heaven
  • Eight is a gate
  • Nine is wine
  • Ten is a hen

Learn this rhyme off by heart and link each number to people, objects or other numbers. To remember a series of numbers, such as a phone number, you might want to link these objects in a series using a story. For example:

The telephone number: 654383

Converts to:

Sticks-Hive-Door-Tree-Gate-Tree

You can then imagine a story to remember this series. For example, a man who ought to know better makes a discovery in his garden pokes a stick into a beehive and is chased by an army of bees. Fearing for the wellbeing of his skin, he runs to the nearest door in his house and shuts it fast. Relieved to have escaped the less than pleased bees, he turns around to make unthinkable gestures at the bees through the door's glass window, and then remembers: he forgot to call the glazing company... the bees swarm in through the gap where glass should be, and the man runs out through the door, past a tree and out of the garden gate. But the bees fly faster, and, turning and running at the same time, the man races head first into another tree.

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