How can we translate numbers into letters?

If you look at the keys on the phone there are three letters associated with each number. Write out the phone number and write the letters assocatied with each number above the number. Then look at the letters and see if you can form words out of them. It has to be in order, or you can’t dial the number from looking at the words.

@BarnacleBill but that takes a lot of time and sometimes u can’t form word after all

Like when they punch in the numbers and turn it upside down? Some numbers look like letters when turned upside down.

Cell phones may ruin our ability to do this anymore. On a regular phone, or some smart phones and older cell phones (but not blackberries, for example):
2=ABC
3=DEF
4=GHI
5=JKL
6=MNO
7=PQRS
8=TUV
9=WXYZ

@jessyamr, right. It takes time because it’s a logic exercise. If it were easy, you would intuitively known how to do it. Not all numbers make words you have to have numbers that have vowel numbers – 2, 3,4, 6, 8 in the right places. For example 452–7283 would be 45BRAVE.

A good general piece of advice – “Most people miss opportunities because it shows up in overalls and looks like work.” Never avoid doing something because it takes effort.

The internet means never having to say it takes time!

This may be a more American thing than elsewhere in the world. In Europe it’s not the practice to associate letters with the digits on the dialing keypad. I don’t think I’ve seen a single European phone that did this (which caused a problem for me once, when I had to dial back to the States to a number that I only knew as its letter mnemonic).

I may be wrong, and I certainly don’t have “extensive” experience with European phones (or elsewhere in the world, at all).

@WasCy can you tell me the american way?

@WasCy yes there was a European standard on this as well.
During the early years of telephone service, communities that required more than 10,000 telephone numbers, whether dial service was available or not, utilized exchange names to distinguish identical numerics for different customers.
When dial service was introduced (typically during the period of 1910 to 1970), in such multiple exchange communities, customers would normally dial the first two or three letters of the exchange name, followed by the numeric digits.

North America Numbering Plan Administration
reference
more ref

Sometimes when I’ve been on the computer too long I get confused and write a number instead of a letter. It feels really weird when it happens. I also have these associations while texting.

1 = I
2 = never happened
3 = E
4 = A
5 = S
6 = G
7 = T
8 = B
9 = never happened
0 = O

@bvdshec17 and what also is a pain is that a calculator or number pad on pc is upside down compared to phone number pad.
I can type into each without looking, but one wonders about why they originally decided on this. Same goes for the QWERTY keyboard.
I admit I love knowing this s*#t!

@blueiiznh The QWERTY keyboard was designed deliberately to slow typists down, in order to prevent the jamming of letters that mechanical typewriters were prone to do.