How we say phone numbers. IME, people say phone numbers like this:

[raccoon]

555-8563 (OK, nobody's number starts with 555, but for the sake of argument, let's use 555.)

“Five-five-five—eighty-five, sixty-three.”

Once in a while they’ll say:

“Five-five-five—eight, five, six, three.”

Somehow to me the first one is easier to remember.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I always do mine the second way.

I want each number to be clear and distinct. Saying them separately does that.

[RebelOne]

16. Ditto. n/t

[anneboleyn]

31. me too - ours is "555-0555"

It would be hard to phrase that as zero-ty-five, fifty-five.

[Lionessa]

2. I think it depends on the number,

for example anything with a -teen or -ty are very hard to distinguish on a phone call and often mistaken.
I have a fair number of 0s so I speak mine out fully, saying 'zero' not 'o'.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. I liked it when exchanges had names

BEechwood 4-5789

My phone had a TUxedo number.

[Moondog]

20. You're dating yourself.

I can just barely remember those days, and I am older than dirt.

[Art_from_Ark]

32. The exchanges in my local area were MElrose-6, CRestwood-3, PLeasant-1, PLeasant-6

On TV shows, the number would always start with KLondike-5.

I remember those well, and I'm not older than dirt

[Scruffy Rumbler]

23. Grandparents...NF9-5276 Party Line!

[orleans]

36. ours was WOodland 8

something, something, something, something (i don't remember probably b/c i never had to call home)
but i still remember some cousin's numbers from when i was a kid:
SP4-6749
and TW7-0186

long-term memory is a funny thing.

[Scuba]

4. Five --- five-five-eight ---fifty-six---three.

Many fewer incoming calls that way.

[graywarrior]

5. My parents got into huge fights over which was to say a phone number

My dad said them the first way and my mother would call him a jackass and tell him to get off his high horse. Vicious fight would ensue. Spaghetti sauce would end up hitting and sliding down the wall, dad would go out and drink for the rest of the night and mom would cry.

[lunatica]

7. If it hadn't been for that one thing everything would have been great!

Damn those telephone numbers!

[graywarrior]

13. They cause so much emotional pain

Someone should do something about them.

[pipi_k]

14. Oh my...

Your house sounds just like mine when I was young.

My parents would have the most awful arguments over the stupidest things.

Food would fly. Things would get broken.


Sometimes it wasn't even fights between them...one year a day or two after Christmas, a drunk guy kept calling the house demanding to speak to his wife. My father kept telling him he had the wrong number. After about the third or fourth call, he ripped the phone out of the wall and then tore down the Christmas tree.

I was maybe 11 or so.

family violence sucks

[graywarrior]

15. I've witnessed multiple phones getting ripped out of the wall.

My dad would do that if too many girls called for my brother. And yeah, our Xmas tree was tossed through the living room windows a few times. Holidays were violent times in our house.

[lunatica]

17. My childhood memories have lots of that stuff

Maybe it has something to do with why I don't do holidays anymore. LOL!

[graywarrior]

18. My entire neighborhood erupted into drunken violence during the holidays

Fun times. I usually go into hiding this time of year.

[geardaddy]

6. Treble five

eight-five-six-three

Or KLondike-5....etc.

[elvisbear]

8. BR-549

[kurtzapril4]

9. LOL!

[geardaddy]

11. GMTA!

Haha!

[CurtEastPoint]

10. I'm sorry....what does IME mean?

[geardaddy]

12. In My Experience.

[Spider Jerusalem]

19. Except when they don't

here in the UK numbers like phone numbers are given like so - say a number is 02076163375 (which is one I just made up, somewhere in London): people will say "oh two oh seven six one six double three seven five". In UK usage it's almost never "two two" etc when saying a number where two of them appear aloud, it's always "double" (and 555 would be "triple five&quot .

[OrwellwasRight]

21. The second way for me and almost everyone I have ever met.

When my friend's number was 444-2426, no one EVER said "Triple four," it was "four-four-four."

However, once you get into triple digits, it can sometimes be easier to say "triple": Example: my zip code used to be 20003. People would get all confused about how many zeros I said, so I started saying "Two-Triple zero-Three." Made things much easier. They might have to pause and think, but they wouldn't ever ask, "Wait, two-zero-zero . . . can you repeat that?"

[tabbycat31]

22. what is this 7 digit number you speak of

I say mine the first way, but I add the area code to it. I don't think I've dialed a 7 digit number since I was a teenager.

[Scruffy Rumbler]

25. Right!?!

Moved back to small town NY and have had to get used to dropping the area code. People look at me strange when I say the 10 digit version!

[raccoon]

27. Hmm, you must have a lot of friends in different area codes. Most of my calls are still

in my area code, hence 7 digit.

[tabbycat31]

28. I was on the road for 6 months this year

And every time I'm shipped off to turn a new area blue, I learn new area codes.

But even locally, my friends have varying area codes. Many just kept their original cell phone numbers with their hometown area codes.

My county really only has one area code, but many people's cell phones are other area codes in the state. I have not had a landline in over 10 years.

[Scruffy Rumbler]

35. Lived in the DC area.

With VA and MD right there, you needed the 10 digit. And when I lived in Portland, OR, they added a second area code to the state. Plus Vancouver, WA was right across the river. They were a local call, but needed area code when dialing.

I think the area of FL I lived in had a similar situation. You actual had to dial all 10 digits to make a local call.
If I remember correctly, a lot of highly populated areas began adding 10 digit dialing for local calls when cell phones became more numerous. Some of the areas began using a different area code for the cells, too.

[ManiacJoe]

34. Growing up in a small town, only the last four digits were needed.

Going to college in the big city introduced the need for 7-digit local dialing. Now the Seattle area has 10-digit local dialing with overlapping area codes.

[Archae]

24. I do it the second way, and I always say "zero" instead of "O."

[intaglio]

26. Used to do it your way until I worked for Directory Enquiries

In the UK back in the '90s so learned to do it number by number and repeat

Trouble is that phones do not send the full sound spectrum so, from your example, 85 can be heard as 825 and 65 as 625. Also people do not hear all you say so sometimes the last element will be dropped so 85 and 65 becomes 82 and 62. We were taught to use NATO pronunciation one-eh, two-eh, the-ree, fo-wer, fy-fe, sick-se, seffen, ay-teh, nine-eh and zee-ro, (not Oh or nought), the actual sound is not as emphatic as written so it doesn't sound un-natural. Repeated numbers 555, for example, were given as "double 5 - 5". You should also try to space out the number into groups of 2 or 3 elements. Thus your number becomes "double-fyfe fyfe; ayteh fyfe; sickse the-ree." which is then repeated. This annoyed some people but very few wrong numbers were heard.

It's also a good idea to use NATO letter IDs when spelling words out.

[nolabear]

29. The second. But I remember a number from when I was five. Ours was "Fairfax 8-2395"

Wonder when word prefixes stopped. I feel REEEEEEEEEEALLY old now...

[Jamastiene]

30. I am still miffed that I have to dial all three of the numbers before the dash.

We used to only dial the last number, then the last 4 numbers. So, 895-1111 would be 5-1111 and we could skip the 89. Now, we have to dial the thing out. Well, touch tone. I'm glad they let us move from rotary phones considering we have to dial more numbers now. And now, even though our county all has the same area code, we have to dial the area code for a city 5 miles to our north now. It's weird. Their first 3 numbers are different than any of ours. So, why we have to dial the area code to call them is beyond me.

[ManiacJoe]

33. In all the places I have ever lived or visited,

I have never heard anyone use your first option but always your second.