On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:38:25 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote:

G wrote:
On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:21:06 +0000, James Farrar
wrote:

One of the mobile companies -- Vodafone, I think -- that displays
the area the mobile is in on some handsets' screens displays 0207
/ 0208, too.

I put that down to the silly numbering conventions:

Large cities (e.g. Birmingham) = 4 digits (0121)
Provincial towns = 5 digits (e.g. 01772)
'02' numbers (e.g. London, NI, Cardiff) = 3 digits
Mobiles = 5 digits

Yes, most people seem to group the first five digits of a mobile number
(07xxx) together, but I'm not aware of any written convention that says
you should. Personally I quote mine as 0787 xxx xxxx because it easier
to remember that way.

Hmm. Mine starts 07976, after which I find the natural place in the
speaking rhythm to leave a pause. I presume 0787x would be the same.

Unless your number is something like 0787 877 8787 (and a prize to the
first person to spot the allusion!)

On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:06:19 -0800 (PST), MIG
wrote:

*Funny how we say dialled. I wonder when anyone last did that.

Well, we have the Royal Mail, which delivers the post.

And the US has the Postal Service, which (naturally) delivers the
mail!

"James Farrar" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:38:25 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote:

Yes, most people seem to group the first five digits of a mobile number
(07xxx) together, but I'm not aware of any written convention that says
you should. Personally I quote mine as 0787 xxx xxxx because it easier
to remember that way.

I tend to split mine as 07748 xxx xxx so as to agree with the convention for
landline numbers that you (usually) have a 5-digit code followed by a
6-digit number that is usually say in groups of three digits. I find it more
difficult to absorb numbers in pairs or in fours. At least in the UK we
don't use the absurd convention of saying the pairs as if they were tens and
units: thirty-eight, twenty-four, thirty-six. Germany is particularly
ludicrous because numbers in German are said backwards in "four-and-twenty
blackbirds" notation so as someone reads out a number you don't even write
down the digits in the order that you hear them. Watching a German write
down a phone number is most amusing because many write down the digits by
taking two steps forward and one step back, rather than waiting to hear the
whole sechs-und-dreizig and then writing down a 3 (dreizig) followed by a 6
(sechs).

Hmm. Mine starts 07976, after which I find the natural place in the
speaking rhythm to leave a pause. I presume 0787x would be the same.

Unless your number is something like 0787 877 8787 (and a prize to the
first person to spot the allusion!)

Hmmm. I don't the allusion. Am I going to kick myself when someone explains
it? Is it a number that makes a word on a calculator display if you turn it
upside down - like 0553 or 77345.

On Fri, 16 Nov 2007, James Farrar wrote:

On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:38:25 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote:

G wrote:
On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:21:06 +0000, James Farrar
wrote:

One of the mobile companies -- Vodafone, I think -- that displays
the area the mobile is in on some handsets' screens displays 0207
/ 0208, too.

I put that down to the silly numbering conventions:

Large cities (e.g. Birmingham) = 4 digits (0121)
Provincial towns = 5 digits (e.g. 01772)
'02' numbers (e.g. London, NI, Cardiff) = 3 digits
Mobiles = 5 digits

Yes, most people seem to group the first five digits of a mobile number
(07xxx) together, but I'm not aware of any written convention that says
you should. Personally I quote mine as 0787 xxx xxxx because it easier
to remember that way.

Hmm. Mine starts 07976, after which I find the natural place in the
speaking rhythm to leave a pause. I presume 0787x would be the same.

I do the same - 07960, then six digits. In my case, the six digits are of
the pattern XAXBXC, with each pair starting with the same digit, so this
group has a strong natural cadence, reinforcing its separateness from the
preceding digits.

Unless your number is something like 0787 877 8787 (and a prize to the
first person to spot the allusion!)

Live And Kicking!

tom

--
I am become Life, destroyer of worlds

On Fri, 16 Nov 2007, Mortimer wrote:

At least in the UK we don't use the absurd convention of saying the
pairs as if they were tens and units: thirty-eight, twenty-four,
thirty-six.

I do, but only because my number is like that - it looks a bit like
272829, which reads nicely as twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine.

Germany is particularly ludicrous because numbers in German are said
backwards in "four-and-twenty blackbirds" notation so as someone reads
out a number you don't even write down the digits in the order that you
hear them. Watching a German write down a phone number is most amusing
because many write down the digits by taking two steps forward and one
step back, rather than waiting to hear the whole sechs-und-dreizig and
then writing down a 3 (dreizig) followed by a 6 (sechs).

This is indeed a highly entertaining fact.

tom

--
I am become Life, destroyer of worlds

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007, BRB Class 465 wrote:

7) Grass Area 14

Which what where now?

tom

--
I am become Life, destroyer of worlds

"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
h.li...
On Fri, 16 Nov 2007, Mortimer wrote:

At least in the UK we don't use the absurd convention of saying the pairs
as if they were tens and units: thirty-eight, twenty-four, thirty-six.

I do, but only because my number is like that - it looks a bit like
272829, which reads nicely as twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine.

I've obviously been over-indoctrinated by the 3-digit police, because I
didn't spot the pattern - I'd have said it as two-seven-two, eight-two-nine.
But now you point it out to me, I can see the grouping, though I'd still say
two-seven, two-eight, two-nine.

In message
Mizter T wrote:

On 16 Nov, 10:06, G wrote:
On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:21:06 +0000, James Farrar

wrote:
One of the mobile companies -- Vodafone, I think -- that displays the
area the mobile is in on some handsets' screens displays 0207 / 0208,
too.

I put that down to the silly numbering conventions:

Large cities (e.g. Birmingham) = 4 digits (0121)
Provincial towns = 5 digits (e.g. 01772)
'02' numbers (e.g. London, NI, Cardiff) = 3 digits

02 numbers actually come out at 5 digits eg Southampton 02380, Portsmouth
02392

Mobiles = 5 digits


Actually they all end up as XXX XXXX XXXX if you work it out.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

On 16 Nov, 18:46, James Farrar wrote:
On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:38:25 GMT, "Richard J."



wrote:
G wrote:
On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:21:06 +0000, James Farrar
wrote:

One of the mobile companies -- Vodafone, I think -- that displays
the area the mobile is in on some handsets' screens displays 0207
/ 0208, too.

I put that down to the silly numbering conventions:

Large cities (e.g. Birmingham) = 4 digits (0121)
Provincial towns = 5 digits (e.g. 01772)
'02' numbers (e.g. London, NI, Cardiff) = 3 digits
Mobiles = 5 digits

Yes, most people seem to group the first five digits of a mobile number
(07xxx) together, but I'm not aware of any written convention that says
you should. Personally I quote mine as 0787 xxx xxxx because it easier
to remember that way.

Hmm. Mine starts 07976, after which I find the natural place in the
speaking rhythm to leave a pause. I presume 0787x would be the same.

Unless your number is something like 0787 877 8787 (and a prize to the
first person to spot the allusion!)

That prize is going... going... going... to me!

On 16 Nov, 19:04, "Mortimer" wrote:
"James Farrar" wrote in message

(snip)

Unless your number is something like 0787 877 8787 (and a prize to the
first person to spot the allusion!)

Hmmm. I don't the allusion. Am I going to kick myself when someone explains
it? Is it a number that makes a word on a calculator display if you turn it
upside down - like 0553 or 77345.

You might (Live and) Kick(iing) yourself, but the number has a more
archaic roots than that. See my other (winning?) post.