Number Pegs
A long number, such as a PIN or a phone number, is easier to remember as a few pictures than as a row of digits. In Ageben, each digit is spoken with its own consonant (counts), and ordinary roots are built from the same consonants. So every root's consonants spell a number. To remember a number, cut it into one- or two-digit pieces and, for each piece, pick a root whose consonants spell those digits. A root used this way is a peg: you picture the thing it names, and later read the digits back off its spelling.
On this page
Reading a word as digits
Each digit has one consonant, the first letter of its spoken syllable:
| Digit | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter | b | d | g | h | z | v | r | l | n | m |
Only the root spells digits, so first take off the letters around it:
- Drop the role letter, the first letter that says the word's part in the sentence (
zfor the subject,vfor the verb, and so on). A word that starts withgl-drops both letters. - Drop the ending (-l, -m, -n, -r) and anything after it, such as plural -x.
- In the root that is left, skip the vowels and the letters
wandy. Read the other consonants as digits, left to right.
zodozel dog is 25: drop z and -l, and the root's consonants are d and z. The role letter and the ending change what the word does in the sentence, not the thing you picture, so dodozem is the same dog and still 25.
w and y fill out a syllable without spelling a digit, so a five-letter root with one of them spells a single digit: arowel radio is 7, and anewul knife is 9. A root whose only consonants are w and y, like ogayul ogre, spells no number.
Vowels never count, so roots that differ only in their vowels spell the same number: agedal cutlery, agedel croissant and ogodal coconut are all 32. When a number has several roots, pick the picture you find most vivid.
Longer words spell longer numbers:
- A dictionary word made of two roots counts its joining letter like any other consonant:
oheleboraldoorbell is 4817. - A word glued with a mid-word
xreads each root in turn, and thexspells nothing:zuwedaxubudalpeanut butter is 12, then 2.
Number words (gragel three), pronouns and other grammar words are not pegs. Read them for what they say.
Peg sizes
| Root | Digits | Peg for |
|---|---|---|
three letters (ohel door) | one | 0 to 9 |
five letters with w or y (arowel radio) | one | 0 to 9 |
five letters, two digit consonants (ubedel pear) | two | 00 to 99 |
dictionary word (oheleboral doorbell) | three or more | a longer piece |
The dictionary has at least one root for every digit and for every pair from 00 to 99. On a five-letter root the last consonant also says what kind of thing the root names (root tails), so the second digit of a pair tells you what sort of picture to look for: 2 is a food or drink, 5 an animal, 9 something with a title, such as a newspaper or a sport.
Remembering a number
- Cut the number into pairs. When a group has an odd number of digits, its last digit is a piece on its own: 555 is 55, then 5.
- For each piece, pick a root that spells exactly those digits.
- Picture the thing each root names (its emoji in the lexicon is a good start). Place the pictures one by one along a route you know well, such as the rooms of your home.
2371 is 23, then 71: odugul triangle, then orebel ring. Picture a triangle threaded through a ring.
Each place on the route holds one piece, so you know how many digits it gives back. If a place that held a pair gives you three digits, you counted the ending or a w or y. If it gives you one, you skipped a consonant of the root.
For a number with a decimal point, use two places: one for the whole part, one for the part after the point.
Person, action, object
To hold six digits in one picture, make a sentence with a subject, an object and a verb, each a two-digit root. Read the digits in the sentence's usual order: subject, object, verb.
zodozel dubedel vabuvul.z-dog | d-pear | v-punch"The dog punches a pear."
This scene holds 25 12 96. Pick a verb with two digit consonants; a verb spelled only with w and y spells nothing.
Find pegs
Type a number to see the roots for each piece, or type Ageben words to read their digits.
Type a number to see pegs for each chunk, or Ageben words to read their digits.