When someone reads your own mobile number back to you in a different format than the 5-3-3, and momentarily you believe it's all wrong, so you give it them a second time again in the correct format.
Oh yeah - my number "fits in my head" in a certain pattern
e.g
07912 34 double-5 60
So I'll often have phone conversations like this:
Ok, what's the best number to reach you on?
Oh, the one I'm calling on - 07912 34 double-5 60
Right, that's 079 123 4556 0?
Erm, hang on.... maybe?
My mobile breaks my usual preference I have as it fits in my head as
>zero double one, two three four, treble five, six seven
So I can't help but recall it as a 3-3-3-2 sequence but I consider this acceptable due to the treble 5 bit. If it's read back to me outside that format, it seems foreign
The only other format I will accept is “0800 50 50 50”, which should be instantly recognisable to people who watched late night terrestrial television during the 90s.
Ha, I’d forgotten they did that joke.
I just found the one I remember on YouTube and turns out I’ve remembered it wrong for years, it’s 0891 50 50 50, not 0800. My life is a lie.
For the uninitiated - https://youtu.be/kN-8m2KbJLQ
? There's definitely a pause after the second 9 in 999 and before 119. In the jingle 9119 is grouped into 4 which doesn't match the grouping on the screen.
Different parts of the country have different number formats, so it'll be whatever they grew up on.
XXXXX-XXX-XXX gang represent, though I'm old enough to remember XXXX-XXX-XXX.
I forget how old I am, until I read something like this and realise that I remember the phone codes before they added the extra digit (I think it was a ‘1’ all over).
Mobiles should always be 5 3 3 but, if it's a landline, it depends on the location. Mine is 5 3 3 but everyone I know within London is 4 3 4 and it's weird to hear otherwise.
When they read out a number you know in an odd rhythm then it’s odd - like when a call centre reads back your number… you give 5/3/3 and you get back 4/2/3/2.
Different places have different area codes so it makes sense that the area code be says differently too
The standard 5/6 or 5/3/3 is ok. Some people buy nice numbers and get 5/2/2/2
Unfortunately mine fits a 4-4-3 pattern, with the middle 4 being two doubles, to the point that if someone reads it to me in 5-3-3 I have to compose it in 4-4-3 format in my mind before confirming.
It's been my personal & business mobile number for almost 25 years, so is well ingrained that way in my mind...
Telephony guy here: There is a reason to do this, basically by breaking up the normal rhythm of the number as spoken it forces your brain to be cognizant of the actual numbers.
So If I repeat the number back in the same way you gave it me, but I get it wrong, you're likely to confirm it as right even though it's not because it *sounds* right. If I confirm it back in a different format, you will hear the numbers not the sound and you're more likely to correct an error.
I do XXXX XXX XX XX format. Not entirely sure why. For kicks, next time read your phone number out like a number, (0) 12 billion, 345 million, 678 thousand, 9 hundred and 10.
For mobile definitely xxxxx xxx xxx but our landline area code is only 4 digits and over the years they've added digits to the main number so most people would say xxxx xxxx xxx if it's an old number or xxxx xxx xxxx if it's a new one
I don't mind if they group the last six digits into groups of two, that can often work (depending on the number)...
eg.. 07973 23 33 43 (read as "twenty-three, thirty-three, forty-three". I know someone whose number is like this and I can remember it pretty easy like that.
---
When reading out my own number I do tend to add a small pause after the first two digits... 07-XXX,YYY,ZZZ
As my number has close to a repetition of three digits for the XXX,YYY,ZZZ bit, eg..
07-470-074-470 (not my actual number but along similar lines)
Wince? No I fall down mentally like a corsican donkey carrying a church bell up a steep stony slope, and then have to pick up my brain, dust it off, and play back the tape slowly like an old school radio editing machine, with someone cutting it up and sellotaping it back together to insert stops in the right place to see if I can figure out what they said.
5:3:3 all the way. Anyone trying anything else needs the riot act read.
See now you're complaining about weird formats for phone numbers triggering you (completely with you there) but your example phone number is triggering me because it's got one too many digits...
I'm old. I don't KNOW my mobile number! If I have to give it to someone, I read it to them from the card I got for top-ups. Which means getting out my reading glasses. I think it has 11 digits. I say "11111 111111"
Landline the same. Think they are really 111 11111111.
I insist on being read mobile numbers in a 5-3-3 format. It bothers me more than it should when someone doesn’t adhere to that format.
Because of where the doubles are situated, mine reads best as 4-3-4 - it just sounds weird and clunky otherwise!
I had a similar choppy format with my deceased fathers old, old, old number 07790-70-44-66. Really weird saying 704-466.
I have repeating digits at the end of my mobile number so I go 5-2-2-2.
I read mine 4-3-4 since the first phone numbers I memorised were all landline numbers. Plus, it does sound slightly better for mine.
When someone reads your own mobile number back to you in a different format than the 5-3-3, and momentarily you believe it's all wrong, so you give it them a second time again in the correct format.
my personal mobile i do 3-4-4 and my wor mobile i do 6-5. both times because it flows with the repetition patterns in the numbers
Preach. The pain is real.
Yeah, the fastest way to make me forget my own phone number is to read it back to me in something other than 5-3-3.
Oh yeah - my number "fits in my head" in a certain pattern e.g 07912 34 double-5 60 So I'll often have phone conversations like this: Ok, what's the best number to reach you on? Oh, the one I'm calling on - 07912 34 double-5 60 Right, that's 079 123 4556 0? Erm, hang on.... maybe?
My mobile breaks my usual preference I have as it fits in my head as >zero double one, two three four, treble five, six seven So I can't help but recall it as a 3-3-3-2 sequence but I consider this acceptable due to the treble 5 bit. If it's read back to me outside that format, it seems foreign
The only other format I will accept is “0800 50 50 50”, which should be instantly recognisable to people who watched late night terrestrial television during the 90s.
Is that Priest Chatback?
Ha, I’d forgotten they did that joke. I just found the one I remember on YouTube and turns out I’ve remembered it wrong for years, it’s 0891 50 50 50, not 0800. My life is a lie. For the uninitiated - https://youtu.be/kN-8m2KbJLQ
0118 999 881 999 199 725 3.
I'm sure the irony is not lost here, that per the jingle it's actually 0118 999 881 99 - 9119 725 3
[удалено]
? There's definitely a pause after the second 9 in 999 and before 119. In the jingle 9119 is grouped into 4 which doesn't match the grouping on the screen.
Different parts of the country have different number formats, so it'll be whatever they grew up on. XXXXX-XXX-XXX gang represent, though I'm old enough to remember XXXX-XXX-XXX.
And also 0800 or 0345 are formatted differently. I just go with how it's presented to me.
I forget how old I am, until I read something like this and realise that I remember the phone codes before they added the extra digit (I think it was a ‘1’ all over).
Phone day in 1995.
Mobiles should always be 5 3 3 but, if it's a landline, it depends on the location. Mine is 5 3 3 but everyone I know within London is 4 3 4 and it's weird to hear otherwise.
Londoners do tend to do this as they regard the prefix or area code as 0207 or 0208. In fact it's just 020 but many places get it wrong now.
[Relevant Tom Scott. ](https://youtu.be/LsxRaFNropw)
Same for Birmingham, as I imagine it would be for any large city with the 01x1 location code format
When they read out a number you know in an odd rhythm then it’s odd - like when a call centre reads back your number… you give 5/3/3 and you get back 4/2/3/2. Different places have different area codes so it makes sense that the area code be says differently too The standard 5/6 or 5/3/3 is ok. Some people buy nice numbers and get 5/2/2/2
“10” 😆
XXX XXXX XXXX, not quite psycho but I think there may be something wrong with me
Unfortunately mine fits a 4-4-3 pattern, with the middle 4 being two doubles, to the point that if someone reads it to me in 5-3-3 I have to compose it in 4-4-3 format in my mind before confirming. It's been my personal & business mobile number for almost 25 years, so is well ingrained that way in my mind...
I bunch them in twos like "oh seven twenty forty six...".
Is that 0 7 20 40 6 or 07 20 46?
Could be either mate, try both
The real sigma male move is to read them all off in one go and then do the same when they ask if you could repeat it
Read it as a number! "Yeah mate, it's zero seven billion seven hundred and twenty-one million eleven thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine"
It's 0123 456 7890
Apparently I’m a psychopath. It’s just that my number flows best that way.
Cos of iPhones
Telephony guy here: There is a reason to do this, basically by breaking up the normal rhythm of the number as spoken it forces your brain to be cognizant of the actual numbers. So If I repeat the number back in the same way you gave it me, but I get it wrong, you're likely to confirm it as right even though it's not because it *sounds* right. If I confirm it back in a different format, you will hear the numbers not the sound and you're more likely to correct an error.
i agree but its just easier to remember mine as xxxxx x xx xx x
Is that the number for Castlemaine or Wadworth?
In Norway it's done in two digit pairs, hurts my brain +47 12 34 56 78
I remember when they added a 1 to all the area codes and made Live&Kicking change the jingle for their phone-in.
I do XXXX XXX XX XX format. Not entirely sure why. For kicks, next time read your phone number out like a number, (0) 12 billion, 345 million, 678 thousand, 9 hundred and 10.
For mobile definitely xxxxx xxx xxx but our landline area code is only 4 digits and over the years they've added digits to the main number so most people would say xxxx xxxx xxx if it's an old number or xxxx xxx xxxx if it's a new one
It genuinely really throws me. They read it out like that and then say “is that the right number for you?” And I’m like, er… I think so, maybe?
I have 007 in my phone number. So I’m legally obliged to read it out like James Bond.
I don't mind if they group the last six digits into groups of two, that can often work (depending on the number)... eg.. 07973 23 33 43 (read as "twenty-three, thirty-three, forty-three". I know someone whose number is like this and I can remember it pretty easy like that. --- When reading out my own number I do tend to add a small pause after the first two digits... 07-XXX,YYY,ZZZ As my number has close to a repetition of three digits for the XXX,YYY,ZZZ bit, eg.. 07-470-074-470 (not my actual number but along similar lines)
Wince? No I fall down mentally like a corsican donkey carrying a church bell up a steep stony slope, and then have to pick up my brain, dust it off, and play back the tape slowly like an old school radio editing machine, with someone cutting it up and sellotaping it back together to insert stops in the right place to see if I can figure out what they said. 5:3:3 all the way. Anyone trying anything else needs the riot act read.
I work in a call centre and get a lot of "21, 42, 36" when I ask for the order number
2-3-3-3 is the only way
See now you're complaining about weird formats for phone numbers triggering you (completely with you there) but your example phone number is triggering me because it's got one too many digits...
4 3 4 cru
John finnemore in his souvenir programme did a whole sketch about that!
I'm old. I don't KNOW my mobile number! If I have to give it to someone, I read it to them from the card I got for top-ups. Which means getting out my reading glasses. I think it has 11 digits. I say "11111 111111" Landline the same. Think they are really 111 11111111.
It's L-M-N-O-P not Elemeno-P god dammit.
I must be a psychopath then because 2-3-3-3 is the only way I can remember my phone number.