Words in telephone numbers?

12 comments

1. Back in the days of wall mounted phones, there were 3-4 letters on each number.

   Most advertisements also displayed the regular numbers as well.

2. Every number on a telephone has three letters that correspond to it.

3. Letters have a corresponding number. Do your number pads not?

   [Example](https://lefkowitz.me/static/efd721ff0a2a7db9e7426476e5df2175/e17e5/10name-phone-pad.png)

4. open up your phone app and look at the keypad. see those little guys under the numbers? they’re letters, there ya go.

5. 2 ABC

   3 DEF

   4 GHI

   5 JKL

   6 MNO

   7 PQRS

   8 TUV

   9 WXYZ

6. On a phone dial numbers 2-9 are assigned letters. 2 (ABC), 3 (DEF), 4 (GHI), 5 (JKL), 6 (MNO), 7 (PQRS), 8 (TUV), 9 (WXYZ). Tips would be dialed 8477

7. If you look at a phone keypad there are letters on it. 2-6 and 8 have three letters of the alphabet (in order obviously), 7 has PQRS and then 9 has WXYZ. To if an advertisement was like “call 555-ABCD” you would dial 555-2223.

   edited because I forgot one

8. Does your phone keyboard not [look like this?](https://imgur.com/a/w2IDyGZ)

9. Corresponding letters on the numbers.

   Open up the call app on your phone, you’ll see letters on 2-9 “keys” (not sure if it’s the same for number pads on phones outside of the US)

   1-800-CALL NOW would be 1-800-225-5669

   It’s just an easier way for advertisers to get people to remember their phone number.

10. > xxxx-xxxxx-tips

    I love how different countries have different cadences for their numbers. Ours are 10 digits – 3, then 3, then 4. (XXX) XXX-XXXX. We do not typically use country codes, and ours is +1 anyway. So your example would be (XXX) XXX-TIPS or (XXX) XXX-8477.

11. It was something to incorporate to make key entry easier for telephone devices to make key entries and telephone numbers easier to use for business.

    Also it’s cheaper than giving everyone a keyboard or type writer with their phone.

12. We do that here a lot. Each number has 3 or 4 letters.