| Numeral |
Sounds |
Commonly associated letters |
Mnemonic and remarks
|
| 0 |
/s/, /z/ |
s, soft c, z, x (in xylophone) |
Zero begins with z (and /z/). Upper case S and Z, as well as lower case s and z, have zero vertical strokes each, as with the numeral 0. The alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
|
| 1 |
/t/, /d/, /θ/, /ð/ |
t, d , th (both in thing and this) |
Upper case T and D, as well as lower case t and d have one vertical stroke each, as with the numeral 1. The alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ form a voiceless and voiced pair, as do the similar-sounding dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, though some variant systems may omit the latter pair.
|
| 2 |
/n/ |
n |
Upper case N and lower case n each have two vertical strokes and two points on the baseline.
|
| 3 |
/m/ |
m |
Lower case m has three vertical strokes. Both upper case M and lower case m each have three points on the baseline and look like the numeral 3 on its side.
|
| 4 |
/r/ |
r, l (as sounded in colonel) |
Four ends with r (and /r/ in rhotic accents).
|
| 5 |
/l/ |
l |
L is the Roman numeral for 50. Among the five digits of one's left hand, the thumb and index fingers also form an L.
|
| 6 |
/tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/ |
ch (in cheese and chef), j, soft g, sh, c (as sounded in cello and special), cz (as sounded in Czech), s (as sounded in tissue and vision), sc (as sounded in fascist), sch (as sounded in schwa and eschew), t (as sounded in ration and equation), tsch (in putsch), z (in seizure) |
Upper case G and lower case g look like the numeral 6 flipped horizontally and rotated 180° respectively. Lower case script j tends to have a lower loop, like the numeral 6. In some serif fonts, upper case CH, SH and ZH each have six serifs. The postalveolar affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ form a voiceless and voiced pair, as do the similar-sounding postalveolar fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. CHurch has six letters.
|
| 7 |
/k/, /ɡ/ |
k, hard c, q, hard g, ch (as sounded in loch), |
Both upper case K and lower case k look like two small 7s on their sides. In some fonts, the lower-right part of the upper case G looks like a 7. G is also the 7th letter of the alphabet. The velar stops /k/ and /ɡ/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
|
| 8 |
/f/, /v/ |
f, ph (in phone), v, gh (as sounded in laugh) |
Lower case script f, which tends to have an upper and lower loop, looks like a figure-8. The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
|
| 9 |
/p/, /b/ |
p, b |
Upper case P and lower case p look like the numeral 9 flipped horizontally. Lower case b looks like the numeral 9 turned 180°. The labial stops /p/ and /b/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
|
| Unassigned |
/h/, /j/, /w/, vowel sounds |
h, y, w, a, e, i, o, u, silent letters, c (in packet and chutzpah), d (in judge), j (in Hallelujah and jalapeno), ll (in tortilla), the first p in sapphire, t (in match), one of doubled letters in most contexts |
Vowel sounds, semivowels (/j/ and /w/) and /h/ do not correspond to any number. They can appear anywhere in a word without changing its number value.
|
| (2, 27 or 7) |
/ŋ/ |
ng, n before k, hard c, q, hard g or x |
Variant systems differ about whether /ŋ/ should encode 2 and classified together with /n/, 7 and classified together with /k/ and /ɡ/ or even 27 (e.g. ring could be 42, 47 or 427). When a /k/ and /ɡ/ is pronounced separately after the /ŋ/, variant systems that chose /ŋ/ to be 27 also disagree if an extra 7 should be written (e.g. finger could be 8274 or 82774, or if /ŋ/ is chosen to be 7, 8774).
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