Peg words—remember lists and numbers

Peg words help you remember numerical and list-type data with ease. Using peg words involves learning a set of words that represent numbers. You then can link items to these words using association. Recalling the items simply involves remembering the peg word and then the association for the item.

Peg words are great for:

Peg words are powerful, however it does take some time to learn how to use them. They also seem cumbersome in the beginning as well. Once mastered though, you have a technique that allows you to recall a wide variety of information with great accuracy.

What are peg words?

Peg words represent numbers. Each peg word contains individual sounds based on the digits in the number. Here are those sounds:

Say the sounds for each number and you hear they are similar. You use your mouth the same way to form each sound.

Vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) and the remaining letters (h, w, and y) do not represent any number. They just help us create the peg words.

From these sounds, you select words to represent each number. Usually the words are nouns or objects as these are easier to associate with other items. The peg words I use to represent the numbers zero to nine are:

Note that you could select any word with the ‘t’ or ‘d’ sound for the number ‘1.’ It’s easier though if only one object represents each number.

Using peg words for lists

How do you use peg words? Here is an example of one use. If you had to remember a list of ten items, you would associate each of the items with one of these words. Using the association exercise you did previously (in the appendix), you would associate as follows, starting at number 1:   

1. Pencil. Associate Tie (the peg word for 1) with Pencil. See a large tie walking around wearing its own tie. It’s a pencil tie.
2. Microwave. See Noah (peg word for 2) on the Ark cooking a hot meal in a Microwave.
3. Lamp. See your mother (Ma, peg word for 3) sitting in the corner of a room with a  lampshade on her head and her hand in the power socket.
4. Chair. Look up and feel a ray (peg word for 4) of light coming from the sun. Then a chair hits you on the head. Where did that come from?
5.  … and so on

When you want to recall your list, start at number 1 and recall the peg word for 1 is Tie. Your association triggers that “Pencil” is the first item on the list. For 2, recall Noah, and your association triggers an image of him getting his dinner out of the Microwave.

There are two advantages of peg words over “linked lists.” First, if you have a linked list of ten items but you forget item number five, it’s difficult to keep going through the rest of the list. Peg words don’t have this problem. If you forget number five, just go on to item number six. Secondly, you can access any item in the list by its number. If someone asked you what item number seven was in a linked list, you would have to start from item one and count your way through. Using peg words, you just recall the peg word for seven, and then your association with it.

Using peg words to remember numbers

You can also use peg words to remember long numbers. If, for example, your credit card has a numerical password of 384957, here’s a way to remember it.

1. Break the number up into two-digit numbers: 38, 49 and 57. Starting at 38, this number has the digits 3 and 8. The sound for 3 is m, and for 8 is f or v. What is a word that just has the sounds m and f/v in it? Move? Mouth? Movie? Keep those in mind. Now for 49, the sounds are r for 4 and p/b for 9. Rope? Robe? Rub? Lastly, for 57 the sounds are l for 5 and k/c/g for 7. Leg? Lock? Lug?

2. Software that can help you learn peg words includes:ý Total Recall SuperMemo (enter your own words)

   Now, associate one of those words for each number together. You could use a linked list approach, and link Mouth (38), Robe (49) and Leg (57) together in a linked list. Another idea is to make a scenario from those words. For example, a “Movie about a Rope Lock.”
3. When you next go to the automatic teller machine, imagine you are getting some money out to go and see a Movie about a Rope Lock. This Rope Lock was feeling upset because all the metal locks were stronger, but in the end it saved the day (somehow).

As you can see, for numbers greater than nine you can make up peg words using the sound of each digit. To reinforce:

• You create a peg word for number 10 by looking at the sounds of its two digits. For 1, it’s ‘t’ or ‘d’. For 0, it’s ‘s’. You could use toes or dice as the peg word for 10.
• You create a peg word for 91 from the sound of ‘b’ or ‘p’ (for 9) and ‘t’ or ‘d’ (for 1). You could use bat, pad, pod, bid, pit, boat, peat or others to represent 91.

Break down longer numbers into two- or three-digit numbers, come up with the peg words for those numbers, and then link them to remember the larger number.

Here’s another example for memorizing a telephone number. Like the numerical password example, break the telephone number up into groups of two or three digits, create a peg word for each group, and then link them. For example, your friend Peter’s number might be 613-945-4969. You could represent this number by the peg words chain-ma-pearl-rope-ship. You could then associate this with an image of Peter tying a big chain around his ma, which crushes her pearls. She starts yelling at Peter, and he gets upset. He ties an even bigger rope to the pearls, and ties the other end to a big ship leaving the harbor. In the two minutes I took to create that phrase, I’ve committed Peter’s number to memory.

Peg words for numbers ten onwards

You’ve seen that you can use the basic set of peg words, zero to nine, in different ways. What happens if you have a list of more than ten items? In addition, doesn’t it seem like it would take a long time to work out words each time you needed to remember a longer number?

While you could make up a word each time you needed one for a number greater than ten, other people have made the job easier. They’ve come up with a predefined set of peg words for the numbers ten to one hundred. Here are the peg words for ten to twenty:

I’ve included a full set of peg words for twenty to one hundred in the text box on page 101.

Memorizing more of the standard peg words helps you use them more efficiently. I believe that knowing the peg word for the numbers one to one hundred is a good standard to achieve. That way you have a good range to use without having to think of a key word that matches the numbers every time.

You don’t have to memorize these larger numbers to make use of them though. You could also just refer to the list when you need the peg word. Once you have associated the peg word, it’s easy to recall the number just by thinking of the individual sounds and working out the number from those.

Tips for using peg words

Here are three tips for using peg words:

• Use tangible things or objects for each peg word. Objects are typically easier to associate other items to.
• Don’t use similar peg words for different numbers.
• Keep a small reference of the full list of peg words close by (for example in your wallet or purse).

A party trick, with an important point

The “Total Recall” software includes ideas on how to use peg words to improve your card game ^ý. There are also some great party tricks to try.

One of those party tricks also provides an extra technique you can use with peg words. Let’s look at the trick first. You can try this with a friend once you have learned more than ten peg words:

1. Have them write down on a piece of paper the numbers one to the highest number for which you can comfortably remember the peg word. If you know the peg words one to twenty, have them write down all the numbers from one to twenty.
2. Have them circle a few of the numbers, without you seeing them.
3. Have them read out the numbers without circles in random order. They cross out the numbers as they read them out.
4. They continue until only the circled numbers remain.
5. When they finish, you read back to them the numbers they circled.

Here is how to do it. As they read out each number, destroy the image of that peg word in your mind. If the number was 6, visualize ripping a shoe into tiny shreds. If it was 10, visualize obliterating a toe (with blood going everywhere). When they have finished reading out the numbers, start from one and recall each peg word. You can easily see the peg words you didn’t destroy.  Those are the numbers they circled!

 Obviously, this trick is more impressive when you can remember a larger set of peg words.

The extra technique to take from this example is destroying peg words. When you no longer need to use a peg word for a particular association, “destroy” it. This is an effective way to make sure you know you’ve finished with it.