How would you say 4721 if it were in something like an address or telephone number?

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hongkonghonky@reddit

If you are answering the telephone or speaking to an operator to connect to someone else then the correct phrasing is

"four seven two one."

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I remember always answering the phone with the number. When we lived in a tiny village (linked to a joint forces base - British & Canadian) in Canada in the 70s, we only ever used the last 4 digits. But when we moved back to the UK, it was 6 digits, not including the area code. We were long past the time when we answered with the locale plus number, except my paternal grandmother (who could have been the template for Hyacinth Bucket, never left the house without a hat) who would always answer with "Sherwood 275631" or whatever the number was (never "Nottingham" as that would be too low class for her, always "Sherwod"). Made me laugh as I got older, especially knowing she'd run an off-licence in St Annes - before it was slated for redevelopement in the early 70s, ie enforced government purchasing of any private properties, then demolishing the lot and rebuilding - until they moved to Sherwood into a house my parents paid for.

If you want to see what St Annes was like, there's a few BBC documentaries about the area, especially the lace pickers doing piece work unravelling old lace for pennies. Search Youtube "Nottingam St Annes Redevelopment" fascinating stuff.

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jonesnori@reddit

Wouldn't Sherwood have been the name of the telephone exchange? That would have been a smaller area within the city. You don't choose those yourself.

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Fibro-Mite@reddit

Back then there weren’t enough people with phones for the greater city area to have been split into other numbers. As I recall, the actual area code was only 3 digits at that time for all of Nottingham. It was long enough ago that they had a party-line with their neighbours. In order to dial out, they had to pick up the receiver and make sure the line wasn’t already in use, then press a special button on the unit to get a dial tone before dialling the number.

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jonesnori@reddit

Oh, okay. Thanks for the clarification and the details! Party lines still existed when I was little, but I never learned how to use them. (I was a deaf child, so didn't overhear things like that, either. Mumps and measles at age 4. Please vaccinate.)

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Hedgehogosaur@reddit

We used to answer the phone at my parents "678543* hello" in the 80s until we got recieved with a digital display. Seems so weird that we did that now. The 6 got added at the start at some point, so we were 5 digits for a while.

*Not these numbers!

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No_Art_1977@reddit

Also funny as if they dialled it they clearly knew the number

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Hedgehogosaur@reddit

But with no digital display it was easier to make a mistake without knowing, but yes it never really made sense. Did mean you really knew your own number though.

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jonesnori@reddit

It was especially easier when phones had dials, not buttons. If your finger slipped and let go of the dial a little early, it would send the wrong signal. Ooh, I hated those things. I was always having to hang up and start over.

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Hedgehogosaur@reddit

That's exactly what I was imagining. I can distinctly recall the feeling in my finger of turning the dial

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Eschamali@reddit

My granny still answers the phone with “hello, xyza!” and it’s iconic enough - and her grandchildren stupid enough - that once we were all old enough to have phones etc with passcodes, it came out that we ALL used her four digits 🫣

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Quiet_Wishbone1349@reddit

My great aunt used to answer the phone with ‘Area 123’ and it always made me smile

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Best_Vegetable9331@reddit

Haha, I use my parents 4 digit phone number.

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JoyfulCor313@reddit

Thanks for the idea for a new passcode…

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mistakenforzen@reddit

Our number was seven digits (without the area code), and not only do I remember the number, but I remember the rhythm and melody with which our whole household adopted the number when answering.

One-two-threeee One-two-three-FOU-ourrrr...

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Hedgehogosaur@reddit

six-seven-eight...five-four-threeee?

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littletorreira@reddit

My mum also did that last 4 digits. So much so my brother and if we ever pick up the phone hers we do it in her exact tone and internation.

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atticdoor@reddit

I think in the early 90s they changed it so you couldn't dial just the last four digits any more, you always had to put in six digits at the minimum.

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neilm1000@reddit

Yeah, we were 862136 and I could dial a mate from school on 2542. Then you had to put the 86 in, this was before Phone Day.

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homemadegrub@reddit

My parents house was just three digits all the way up to around the mid 90s I would guess until we got a three digit local area code which had to be included thereafter

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neilm1000@reddit

Yeah we had a couple of villages in south Devon which were four numbers, so the number was 8 digits (STD plus number).

I wonder when STD codes became area codes.

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8Ace8Ace@reddit

You're not from the Cotswolds are you? I grew up there and remember the 6 being added

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Hedgehogosaur@reddit

No, this was Essex

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8Ace8Ace@reddit

Ah, never mind.

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sebmojo99@reddit

oh wow, core memory unlocked

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Novaportia@reddit

I deal with a lot of elderly people in my job and quite a few still answer the phone like that.

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fothergillfuckup@reddit

Dammit. Just when I was dialing Mr and Mrs Hedgehogosaur too!

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Business_Act_127@reddit

I did, and for some reason the very rude people on the other end said to me "Oh my God! Another one. Just fuck off will you."

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snapper1971@reddit

The most famous telephone number in the UK in the 50s was "Whitehall 1212" - the telephone number of Scotland Yard.

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Loose_Loquat9584@reddit

You’ve just triggered a memory of family games night when we played Monopoly. Dad used to say that every time he landed on Whitehall.

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Eldavo69@reddit

1212 - it’s the jump off right here.

Is it the number for the Gravel Pit?

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ConsistentBorder6689@reddit

Back back and forth and forth

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ajpdandc@reddit

Roadies PIN number

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umognog@reddit

Funny thing is, that's absolutely Whitehall twelve twelve, not one two one two.

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Intelligent_Boat_994@reddit

It still is - now gets a longer prefix, but it is still 020 7230 1212.

The WHItehall prefix relates to the letters attached to each number and the first three letters of these areas translated to a number of the exchange.

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tremynci@reddit

Back in the day, people might answer the phone using area and number (which is how you would ask to connect also)

"Westminster two eight six one" for example

For that matter, that is also how numbers in the US were historically given: hence the Glenn Miller song "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" (the phone number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC, where Glenn and his orchestra were in residence).

All-number calling just transforms the capital letters in the exchange name to numbers (736-5000). It's the reverse of 1-800-CALL-SAM.

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Far-Initiative-3303@reddit

Exactly. I can remember clear as day my gran answering the phone "Corstorphine four five four two".

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mattcannon2@reddit

My grandma still answers the phone this way

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jlangue@reddit

In American pop music, they had “Pennsylvania 6-5000”, similar phone concept. PE6-5000 was the number of the venue Glenn Miller and other jazz acts used to play.

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soupalex@reddit

ah! i always thought it was something to do with locomotives (every other u.s.american song i could think of that incorporated [place in america] [number] seemed to be about trains; obviously "pennsylvania 6-5000" doesn't have any other lyrics that might have clued me in, but for instance "(i heard that) lonesome whistle" has "number 9", "caroline" (carolina, north or south), and "georgia", and is pretty unambiguously about iron horses)

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jlangue@reddit

Chattanooga choo choo might have thrown you off. Or Take the A Train, which was the subway.

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TurloIsOK@reddit

Pennsylvania 6-5000 was the number for the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC

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TurloIsOK@reddit

btw, Pennsylvania 6-5000 was the number for the Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC

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Aware_Ad_431@reddit

100%

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kifflington@reddit

Don't forget the singsong delivery with upward inflection at the end.

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

This is exactly the info I was looking for. Thank you so much.

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hongkonghonky@reddit

You are very welcome, glad I could help.

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SleipnirSolid@reddit

You're welcome

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Kite42@reddit

And in this play, it's "Brumley eight seven five two"

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prustage@reddit

An Inspector Calls is set in the English Midlands in 1912. They would have said "four seven two one". Definitely NOT "forty seven twenty one"

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DaveDouglasWrestler@reddit

4,7,2,1.

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DangerousCalm@reddit

If you're playing Birling, he doesn't have an RP accent. Although his vernacular is elevated in a pompous way, his accent is regional. It indicates that he's new money, not old. That's what separated him from his wife and Gerald.

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ExploreWellness-@reddit

Some numbers lead better to individual digits, some to pairs. 4721 is four seven two one but 1277 is twelve seventy seven.

I don't know why, it just is!

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Scottish_squirrel@reddit

I'd say the numbers Individually. 5 7 2 1.

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PolgaraEsme@reddit

“Four seven two one?” With a rising inflection. You are not just confirming the number, you are asking how you can help/why they have called. The question is implied not asked directly.

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LexyNoise@reddit

You ever watch that movie Inglorious Basterds? The famous “three glasses” scene?

This is something that would get American spies caught in Britain, if our countries ever didn’t get along.

Saying numbers in two-digit groups is very American. We don’t do that. It would always be four seven two one.

The only exception is years or a number that looks like a year. If I lived at 1962 Something Road I’d say “nineteen sixty two”. But not if I lived at 4721 Something Road.

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MentalJargon@reddit

Although it would be perfectly acceptable to say "double 3" were there two consecutive 3s for example

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timsisson@reddit

Where I grew up our number was 22258. We used to answer the phone with two-double-two-five-eight.

The local co-op was 22582, we used to get lots of wrong numbers

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Tanglefoot11@reddit

Exactly - this all brings back memories of my grandmother answering the phone - it used to be "three eight two nine", then changed to "two three eight two nine", then "double two three eight two nine".

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Livid_Pace9787@reddit

Or a combination as in… oh eight hundred double oh, ten sixty six, for instance.

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gustycat@reddit

We're a strange country

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HiCabbage@reddit

Really threw me when I started riding three-digit buses in London 😂 "why don't you call it the two-forty-two?!" (Can confirm that the 100 is "the one hundred" at least, whew!)

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No_Art_1977@reddit

We had the 7-11 never 7 1 1 or 711!

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sebmojo99@reddit

oh! and you have to put an 'and' between parts of numbers, so it would be two hundred and forty two. skipping the 'and' is a very american thing.

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KirasStar@reddit

Okay this is an aside but now I understand why some people say Blink one eighty two, rather than one eight two. Must be an American thing.

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HiCabbage@reddit

Yes! That always gave me a smile (I'm a US-born now-UK citizen who lived in London for 17 years, so a bit of a student of transatlantic millennial culture). One -not directly related to this exchange, but thematically similar- is how Brits call Super Nintendo "snes" like rhymes with fez. If Americans used the acronym/initialism, it'd be s-n-e-s.

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JimmySquarefoot@reddit

I love how we're now all completely aware that the correct pronunciation of Nike is "Nike-ey" (like spiky), but we all flatly refuse and continue to call it Nike - like bike.

I'm English and I will rhyme Nike with bike til the day I die, even though I know its objectively wrong.

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atomicsiren@reddit

It should actually be nee-kay, as per the Ancient Greek pronunciation.

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MJLDat@reddit

That guy in Back to the Future Pt 3 said it right.

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freeworld15@reddit

"What kind of Indian name is that!?..."

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MJLDat@reddit

And check out these pearly whites!

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Assleanx@reddit

Iirc from when I did Ancient Greek, it’s somewhere between that and “ni-kair” said in a very non-rhotic accent

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Mountain_Strategy342@reddit

The goddess was named Nike (pronounced Nee-kay).

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Material-Net-5171@reddit

You mean an American would say the letters rather than sound it like a word?

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HiCabbage@reddit

Yup! "Super Nintendo" is, in my experience, what it's usually called, but if you were using the letters, it'd be "ess en ee ess" or "Super en ee ess."

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Material-Net-5171@reddit

Interesting. Particularly since the acronym 'asap' would be dealt with the opposite way.

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KirasStar@reddit

And MRSA! Americans pronounce it like it’s a word, rather than spelling it out.

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Material-Net-5171@reddit

How the hell do you pronounce that as a word!?

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KirasStar@reddit

Mirr-sa

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Material-Net-5171@reddit

That's crazy.

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n3m0sum@reddit

US and the UK, two countries divided by a common language.

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ScampAndFries@reddit

Interestingly (or not) it works with some but not others, for example Sum-41 is fourty one, but the UKG tune "138 Trek" by DJ Zinc is One Three Eight.

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Nkhotak@reddit

Surely the two hundred and forty two would make more sense. Two forty two is just a mishmash of both.

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danger0usd1sc0@reddit

We have two busses locally that follow the same route, but one route is extended. The 64 (sixty-four) and the 464 (the four-six-four) - just to mix it up a bit!

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Nkhotak@reddit

Yep. In my area it’s the Sixty three and the three six three. Never thought about it before. Weird.

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auntie_eggma@reddit

I was just thinking this for the 53 (fifty-three) bus and the 453 (four-five-three) bus.

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stinkyswife@reddit

Yes, you'd never say you're getting the six four! I used to regularly get the one-two-eight, the forty-nine and the one-twenty (not the one-two-oh). I remember someone once saying about getting the one twenty-eight and it felt like being slapped around the ears! If it's a single number, I'd usually say the word 'number' - "I'll catch the number 4 into West Brom." I really don't know why I felt the need to witter on about this!

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aspannerdarkly@reddit

Why don’t you call it the twenty four two?

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dustbuster39000@reddit

An aside, but what would you call the 101? One-oh-one? One hundred one? One-zero-one?

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Aware_Ad_431@reddit

Unless they were in the military, older people are likely to say the one oh one.

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HiCabbage@reddit

I may have to ask my BFF who lives in Wanstead!

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Sea_Confection6488@reddit

Probably because two forty two could also refer to a time?

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andi-amo@reddit

Three Fiddy. It's later than you think.

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HiCabbage@reddit

Haha, I was just giving an example of a bus I used. The 388 is the three-eight-eight. Though thinking about it, I think multiples of ten don't have the zero read out. Pretty sure the 390 is the three-ninety. I'll pop over to Oxford Street and check it out :D

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Cantseemtothrowaway@reddit

Yeah, with buses I’d say e.g. ‘Three-o-three’, but ‘Three-thirty’

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Aware_Ad_431@reddit

It would be an unusually long residential street in the uk!!

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

This scene actually came to my mind and is what made me decide to ask. I try to be as authentic as possible in my portrayals. I'm sure I'm messing up a thousand things, but since it's something that came to mind, I figured I should at least try to figure it out.

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Dangeruss82@reddit

Four seven two one.

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pbfhpunkshop@reddit

Others have answered, but wanted to say An Inspector Calls is my favourite play, did it for GCSE English 33 years ago and have seen the play a few times - latest was over the summer this year.

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Vast_Act_3077@reddit

Four thousand seven hundred and twenty one.

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J-ShapedNerd@reddit

Personally, I would say the numbers individually, but in pairs with a slight pause between them if saying them out loud to someone else:

So “five-seven, two-one”.

But that’s more because I know that I’m more likely to remember pairs of numbers than a string of them if someone was saying them to me, so in my way that’s me trying to be helpful.

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bluebellwould@reddit

Separate numbers for a phone number. Our number growing up was 773393. We used to answer "seven seven three three nine three"

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Future_Direction5174@reddit

My families phone number was 4716 and we answered the phone “four seven one six”. The doctor was, believe it or not, “four seven two one”. The doctor still has the same number 50 years later (additional numbers added at the front).

My mobile number ends “oh double three”.

So single numbers are just the number “three oh two five”. If there is a double number it is “three oh double five”.

Now, I can’t answer for everyone, but this is how I have always quoted numbers and I am now 64, UK born and bred.

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JakeRiddoch@reddit

"oh one eight double one eight oh five five" - flashback for a certain generation. Amazing I can still remember it, but it was repeated to us every Saturday morning.

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Senior_Background830@reddit

nice which character are you?

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WackyAndCorny@reddit

Let’s take this as a perfect opportunity to request to all the folk who make a mess of phone numbers now. Does my swede.

If you are giving out phone numbers or repeating a phone numbers, do it in the 5/3/3 style, PLEASE!

Oh one two three four [pause] five six seven [pause] eight nine ten

The amount of mental effort involved in handling someone who deals with a standard UK number by saying:-

Oh one two three [pause] four five six [pause] seven eight nine [pause] ten

Or something like that. No no no. Area code, three digits, three digits. There is no other acceptable way. I end having to recalculate it in my head whilst they’re saying it.

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P_T_W@reddit

just to add to all the variations, I have a 5-figure number (as well as a 5-figure area code), as does my place of work.

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ScampAndFries@reddit

This, so much this!

5/3/3 is the correct format for mobile numbers and I will always repeat it back in that format even if they've read it out to me in the incorrect format.

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CautiousBiscuit@reddit

Depends on the dialling code though surely? If you've got an 0208 number then that's the common part. You wouldn't shoehorn an extra number onto that

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atomicsiren@reddit

The common part is 020, not 0208.

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Jazzietunes@reddit

I absolutely agree and this is how a give my own mobile number, however my husband has a very odd mobile number and the only way I can remember it is:

Oh treble , double , two digits, three digits!! I hate saying it that way but it’s now stuck in my brain and is the only way I can remember it! 😂

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atomicsiren@reddit

Mine is

oh-treble seven

six-two-six

five-eight-five-eight (numbers changed, obviously).

If someone reads it back to me as

oh-seven-seven-seven-six

two-six-five

eight-five-eight,

it completely throws me.

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Frodo34x@reddit

That assumes a 5 digit area code though? The phone number for Edinburgh Zoo, for example, is 0131 314 0300 because Edinburgh uses a 4 digit area code of 0131. https://www.rzss.org.uk/contact

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WackyAndCorny@reddit

4/3/4 then would be the standard convention for that. Except in the proffered example where you could expect to get “oh three double oh” maybe.

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Frodo34x@reddit

What I'm saying is, if somebody gives you a phone number that isn't in the 5/3/3 format you're expecting it's not only because they're "not using the ONLY acceptable format for phone numbers"; there's a good chance they're just using the correct format for their city.

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WackyAndCorny@reddit

Absolutely. Always ready for that. But when I’ve managed to write it down and it’s there in 5/3/3 format I am forced to scream {{Wwwhhhhhhyyyyyy}} in my head and snap the pencil lead off.

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pinotageme@reddit

Yep as someone who moved from one 011x area to another, 011xx just doesn't exist and is just as infuriating to see!

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rainbow-songbird@reddit

My phone number I learned 3/3/3/2 and obviously no-one would repeat it like that so I get so confused when its read back to me

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HarissaPorkMeatballs@reddit

I'm afraid it's too late. I learnt my mobile number as 4/4/3 and I can't undo it. I've tried giving it in other formats and I just get confused.

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pm_me_your_amphibian@reddit

Area codes aren’t always 5 digits but otherwise yes! My boyfriend gives out his mobile number 4-3-5 and it drives me crazy but also for some reason has fried the circuit for his phone number in my brain and I can’t remember it.

(My pet peeve is people saying O instead of 0 at the beginning of phone numbers (or in the middle!))

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WackyAndCorny@reddit

Oh at the front, zero or double zero in the middle.

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pm_me_your_amphibian@reddit

Yeah that’s even worse!

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WackyAndCorny@reddit

Yeah, we love a little deviation from the rules in the middle of the rules.

At least we’re not having a discussion about the best way to get from Boglington to Little Snatch between 2 and 4 on a Tuesday, and whether or not it’s best to avoid Nether Humping as it might be school chucking out time. Those can get lively.

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pm_me_your_amphibian@reddit

Excuse me are you suggesting that different people with different views can coexist?!

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Impressive-Safe-7922@reddit

When I moved to the UK I didn't know how to split up phone numbers and memorised mine as 4/3/2/2. Nothing I can do to change it now, that's how it's locked into my brain!

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WackyAndCorny@reddit

Having done French and school, aswell as being an expert on La Rochelle, I understand that in France it was always 4 double groups, now 5 I think, and those double groups would be “the number”, so the idea that someone with that background gives out a number as “eighty five, ninety six, sixteen, ten” perhaps is not alien to me.

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kasterborosi@reddit

So I would have absolutely agreed with you until I moved to Glasgow and realised that as in many big cities, the area code is only four digits and the correct split is 4/3/4. Blew my tiny mind.

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WackyAndCorny@reddit

4/3/4 is the correct way to deal with this. The common exception being the “double” situation where you might go 4/3/2/2 or something because of a “double two” or something.

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kasterborosi@reddit

The worst thing is when people do 3 at the start. This is always wrong. Or starting a mobile number with anything other than 5.

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Janjannaj@reddit

My mobile number works best as 5/2/2/2 and I will not change, thank you.

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WackyAndCorny@reddit

Absolutely fine. The important part to that is the 5 digit start. That’s the long established convention. My son is the same for us. His mobile number is 5/2/2/2 for us.

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PeterJamesUK@reddit

My foreign wife always reads her mobile number in the wrong groupings, and I always tell her the correct way to read it out. She says "nobody else complains" smh.

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Awellknownstick@reddit

As they're written Four Seven two three.

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ThatGuyNamedDanny@reddit

public men, mr birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges (sorry, i just hate gcses that much)

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

Perhaps. But you weren't asked to come here to talk to me about my responsibilities.

What's a gcse?

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ThatGuyNamedDanny@reddit

It's the UK's general exam thingies for 16 year olds (i'm 17). Almost EVERYONE for the past 8 or so years have had to study (and I mean religiously) an inspector calls as well as a couple other texts and poems as well. Basically, I know most of the famous quotes from AIC as well as plot lines and sub plot lines. (It has given me trauma)

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

That's unfortunate. I'd never even heard of it before auditioning and finding it to be a rather interesting play.

It's amazing how school can sap the joy out of anything.

In the US they do this with Romeo and Juliet to the point that basically everyone hates Shakespeare which is a damn shame.

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ThatGuyNamedDanny@reddit

Yes, we do romeo and juliet (whilst not as intense) in year 9 (i think that's grade 10 or somewhere similar I think?). But yeah It definitely would have been a really good book/play if school didn't choose it to the overly analyse every detail of it for some exam.

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mellowkitty88@reddit

I am going to assume you are playing the role of Birling and this is the phone call towards the end to check whether a girl had been admitted to the hospital.

Birling is supposed to have a provincial accent (basically a bit rough around the edges - not as posh as Mrs B or Gerald) dont worry too much about the RP accent. Rough it up a bit :)

I teach this play at school every year! He does many faux pas during the play such as thanking the staff. Think of him as a self made businessman rather than someone inherently posh :)

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

I am and it's the call to the chief constable to see if Goole is a real inspector or not.

But, since you teach this are there any specific lines you'd say really have a lot of weight that I should give special consideration?

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mellowkitty88@reddit

Congrats on the role. I teach it as part of their English qualifications in secondary school so not in any drama related way (probably should have clarified!)

I think with Birling the main thing is he needs to be confident about everything he says (especially regarding titanic and ww1) and even at the end when Gerald returns saying there is no inspector (before the final phone call). We talk a lot about “mixed up like bees in a hive” and how he has disgust for any sort of socialist views. If you get chance, and can find it, the BBC did a great version in 2015. This is a clip here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0326y70

Birling is very much a man who likes to see himself as “part of the establishment”. British people love to show off who they know especially if it’s a person of high importance or influence. Hence the happiness of his daughter’s marriage to the son of a lord and his friendship with Alderman Meggarty (both people you can assume have high influence with society). That being said, he married well. His wife is someone born into money (as opposed to Birling who appears to have made it) which establishes them as a bit of a power couple with lots of sway.

I hope this helps! Mr Birling talks ALOT in the early part of the play and loves the sound of his voice haha.

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

This all checks out with how I'm playing him and I've watched that it's very good.

Thanks for the affirmation, I hope I can bring the role justice.

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mellowkitty88@reddit

Good luck!

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Queasy_Jackfruit_474@reddit

four seven two one archer sir

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No_Art_1977@reddit

Four two seven one

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tubby_bitch@reddit

4 7 2 1

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Dangerous_Service106@reddit

I would absolutely say four, seven, two, one and not forty-seven, twenty-one

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Toneballs52@reddit

Yes, say numbers individually except 4722 would be four seven double two.

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19hammy83@reddit

It's really weird actually. I used have a phone number years ago that was something like 07783554477 (completely random made up number for this examole but I'm tempting myself...). When I was giving my number out I'd say it like "oh, double seven, eight, three pause double five, four pause four, double seven*

We always say double number except for me with the double 4 in a phone number. I think it was because when I was growing up, pre mobile phone times, so I learnt numbers in a sequence. Area code round my way was 5 numbers, then the phone number was 6 numbers but I always learnt that as 2 sets of 3 numbers. I.E xxx-xxx and it would seem alien to me not to give a number without using the 5-3-3 format

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Foundation_Wrong@reddit

Five seven two one!

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Warm_Ganache7089@reddit

What does RP stand for out of interest?

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Pitythebackseat@reddit

Recieved Pronunciation

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Shitelark@reddit

We aren't French, darling; no double digits.

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Stuffedwithdates@reddit

wow

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Extension_Sun_377@reddit

Four seven two one - spoken as a question, with pitch slightly raised on the 'one'. Should really have the exchange before it, as has been mentioned -

"Brumley Four Seven Two One?"

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After-Tutor5979@reddit

Perfectly explains the correct intonation. Well played 👏

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Aware_Ad_431@reddit

Yes!!! I wasn’t allowed to answer the phone until I could recite the number that way!!!!

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

This is perfect. Thank you.

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Stuffedwithdates@reddit

for a phone number of that period just say the separate digits. If it's a local number that is all you need. If it's not a local number it will be proceeded by the name by the exchange; Fairham 4721. It wouldn't be plausible as a house number. Britain doesn't use a block system. the low hundreds is as high as it would get. "One hundred and thirty two" Harcourt Way. would be on a long street.

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West_Guarantee284@reddit

Apparently, there is a 2679 Stratford Road, Hockley Heath.

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CrazyPlatypusLady@reddit

It would be said like this.

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IllustratorGlass3028@reddit

4721? Inflection on the one? Raise the one as in a question.

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Implanted1@reddit

You could borrow the line from 'The Real Inspector Hound' when the housekeeper, answering the phone for the second time, says "The same, a half-hour later?" (? noting the rise at the end of the phrase) - the first time being "Binmen 0 8 1 8" (or whatever) as previously mentioned.

I loved this line when I first saw(/heard) it as a teenager.

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daveyboy2009@reddit

4 7 2 o

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AlJaWi@reddit

Victor Meldrew always answered ‘4 2 9 1’ so ima go with that approach

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JezusHairdo@reddit

It’s five hundred and seventy two, one

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WhaleMeatFantasy@reddit

Why are you only using your accent ‘for the most part’?

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

I'm using the accent the whole time. What I meant was that the accent I'm using isn't 100% RP. Partly because I wanted the character to sound at least a little like he was from the working class and partly because, as an American, I would never claim that any accent I'm doing is 100% accurate.

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Far-Hospital-9961@reddit

Four seven two one.

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RevStickleback@reddit

The pronunciation of two identical digits together was also a rule, so 29978 would be said as "two double-nine seven eight"

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sock_cooker@reddit

It's 4291!

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Paulstan67@reddit

Back in the day (pre mobile phones) we answered the "hello" followed by the phone number as individual digits .

Zero was pronounced "O" or Ow,oh, Three o six one (3061)

Most people , would use the term "double" for repeated numbers ... Five double three six (5336)

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Nkhotak@reddit

The exchange codes were originally alphabetic and I read somewhere decades ago that the area code 0s are Oh but in the number itself they’re zeros. I was young and impressionable so that’s what I’ve stuck with ever since.

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Albert_Herring@reddit

Not for the middle pair. "Five six double three" but "Three four four six" (source: that was my home number until I was in my mid 20s).

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MetalRocksMe_@reddit

I still say oh/ow because zero has too many syllables when reciting phone numbers etc.

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SquareYogurtcloset88@reddit

I'd say them separately. So Four, Seven, Two, One

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Ashfield83@reddit

All English people say the same thing when answering the phone.

‘The BOUQUET residence, the lady of the house speaking’

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GeeTeeUK@reddit

“four-two-nine-one” https://youtu.be/e0tiNwOpZ68?si=oU0Ist4PhlRSjZHU 🐕

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SnooDonuts6494@reddit

Four-Seven-Two-one.

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merlin252@reddit

I was about to charge in here and assert that Mr Birmingham is rather provincial in his speech, but then I realised this guy's playing Gerald...

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

I am actually playing Mr. Birling, but when we started, the director wanted all the Birlings to sound upper class (to an American ear) so the Inspector would stand out more. And I already had a voice and accent in mind and went with it. If I were to start over I'd probably try to do something a bit more Yorkshire.

But with his speech patterns and the fact that, while I feel I'm pretty good at accents for an American, I'm sure it would sound very off to anyone with any real knowledge, I think it kind of comes off as someone who is provincial, but is trying to disguise the fact.

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booglechops@reddit

An excellent example of this is Ben Kingsely's character in Boxtrolls. He puts a H sound at the start of some sentences, and it sounds just like someone pretending to be posh.

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SnooDonuts6494@reddit

I think Birling would say exactly the same thing.

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merlin252@reddit

Oh yes, just not in RP.

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BruceGrobbelobster@reddit

Four Two Nine One.

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Dizzy_Association315@reddit

You have just unlocked a core memory of GCSE English literature 😂

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OldRancidOrange@reddit

Yeah, growing up we’d answer the phone with hello, two four double seven. Skipping the three digit exchange number.

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BobbyDee87@reddit

You want to be able to rattle off the number as quickly as possible. If you take the shortcut of pronouncing 0 as 'oh' instead of 'zero' then every digit other than 7 is a single syllable (even then many people will compress to something like 'sevn' to make it quicker and keep the rhythm going).

Four-seven-two-one = 5 syllables

Forty-seven-twenty-one = 7 syllables

Four-thousand-seven-hundred-and-twenty-one = 11 syllables

It's not relevant for the number at hand, but there is an exception where you have repeated digits, many people will say e.g. 'double four' or 'triple five'. Although this can technically lead to increased syllables, we would pronounce double/triple very quickly so it wouldn't take longer to say. But, more importantly, it can avoid confusion for the recipient when listening to the number e.g. 'wait, how many fives was that?'

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aspannerdarkly@reddit

Treble, not triple, please. We’re not philistines.

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AdThat328@reddit

Each number individually.

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mad-un@reddit

I would answer the phone, "4-2-9-1", if I were a 90s TV character

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cardanianofthegalaxy@reddit

I don't believe it

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WanderWomble@reddit

It used to be usual to answer by saying "London 5-7-2-1" (or whatever the place was.

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snowdrop0901@reddit

Dunno if youd have access, but theres probably clips on the Internet somewhere.

There is a 2015 BBC tv movie adaptation of Inspector Calls. We watched it in english class when it first came out and is quite good adaptation of the story.

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

I've actually seen that twice and it totally didn't occur to me to reference it.

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Successful_Theory628@reddit

4,7,2,1

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Any_Weird_8686@reddit

I think you're worrying about it too much, but I personally would say each digit separately, so: 'five-seven-two-one'.

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CommunityOld1897GM2U@reddit

4,7,2,1.

"Westminster 4,7,2,1" is how you'd often hear it in older radio shows.

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SirMcFish@reddit

A simple 4 7 2 1

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Acrobatic-Shirt8540@reddit

Four two nine one 😁.

Iykyk

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Colossal_Squids@reddit

What the bloody hell are you doing here?

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rb357@reddit

4291, from the sit-com "One Foot in the Grave"

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JamesTiberious@reddit

Was looking for this 😄

It seemed odd at the time that he only had 4 digits though?

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rb357@reddit

If you had the number 0123 456 7890, I think originally you could dial other 0123 numbers by omitting that part, so just 456 7890, and you could dial other 0123 456 numbers just dialling 7890 - but I think it depended exactly on your area.

So you could just quote your number as the last 4 digits here, if it was one that you could dial from the local area.

But I think additionally, it was probably useful to have some ambiguity in the sitcom as to what the full number was, because literally any phone number shown on TV will be dialled thousands of times.

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JamesTiberious@reddit

I think you’re probably right that it was just to make sure it wasn’t a valid number.

By the 80’s/90’s people weren’t sharing the same local area code (eg the 123 in 123 4567) any more - there was no local geographical subset or any sort of clear pattern any more. Though I’m sure it wasn’t fully random either.

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OutdoorApplause@reddit

I remember radio jingles from the late 90s early 00s which just used the second half of the number (skipping the area code) with the assumption that anyone listening to local radio would know the area code to stick in the front. We had a four digit area code so the jingles I remember are like "4-8-3, 10-9-9 you can call at any time" which was a taxi company.

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JamesTiberious@reddit

It was (is still?) common for local businesses not to put the main area code (the first 5 numbers) leaving only 6 or 7 numbers.

But just to be clear in this context, we’re talking about omitting the next 3 numbers after that, because many years ago (up until 60/70’s?) everyone in the very immediate area had the same 3 numbers. Since 80’s onwards, that seemed to stop happening at some point - everyone just got seemingly random 6 or 7 numbers.

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GlitteringBryony@reddit

You can still dial other numbers in your area without the area code, as long as you call from a landline. Unsure if that will still be the case once the transfer to VOIP completes early next year, but for now you can still dial a seven-digit number for a local shop, and someone will pick up.

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Evening-Manner9709@reddit

My mum only retired our childhood landline last year and im desperate to get a memorial tattoo of '3553'. I truly do not understand how i am this old.

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AgincourtSalute@reddit

It was '8517' for over half a century for our family.

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CuteEntertainment385@reddit

My grandmother only stopped answering the phone as 2022 in the 2010s, which is also when she stopped doing everything else.

The way I understood it was that saying the full number 444 2022 was redundant because most of the people she knew also had 444 in their number.

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JinxThePetRock@reddit

which is also when she stopped doing everything else.

I'm sorry but that turn of phrase made me laugh so hard. I love it.

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Akicif@reddit

Can't speak to London, but in Edinburgh your phone number could have been 0131 667 4521 and you would answer with " 4 5 2 1" or possibly even "Newington 4 5 2 1" if you'd lived there long enough. It was rare to hear "6 6 7 4 5 2 1"....

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bandlj@reddit

We did the same in Birmingham

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_gothick@reddit

I came looking for this! (Also, yes, I’m old enough to remember answering our first phone with “Five eight six three?”; London, 1970s)

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terryjuicelawson@reddit

Others have answered telephone, digits individually. Address - I'd be very surprised if an address here got as high as the thousands but it would probably be the same as it gets rather long winded otherwise.

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JeffTheNth@reddit

I was listening to a YT couple discussing a movie that had an address number over 10k and they were dumbfounded how it's so high... Apparently even numbers in the hundreds are rare in the UK.

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terryjuicelawson@reddit

I believe in the US they can go up by 100 if it is the next block and the streets and avenues in the grid system are very long, so big cities would do that. We'd be on a new road name or reach a junction rather than do that.

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JeffTheNth@reddit

yes, it's state and municipality dependant, but that's a common one...

also, for a couple examples of why they used different numbering, a town had east-side addresses 5000 higher than west-side for long streets that covered both ends so they were easy to split at the post office, and there was another largish town who was close to one with a similar name so all their addresses were over 2000 to ensure there was no mixup. (I read something about addressing ages ago... I remember the system but not the town names.)

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WorkingCity8969@reddit

Singular digits. Every time

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moist-v0n-lipwig@reddit

Others have given the answer, but might be worth watching it? There’s definitely been a TV showing of the play (I think it was made for TV but is very true to the original).

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NegligentBat@reddit (OP)

You know, I watched that twice and it didn't even cross my mind to reference it. Makes me feel kind of foolish.

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neilkeeler@reddit

Some people used to state the the exchange and the number "Richmond - 5721".

Having been around in 4 digit phone number time it was always the list of digits e.g. 'five-seven-two-one', usually with a rising inflection on the last number, well from my mum at least!

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andi-amo@reddit

If this is the London Borough of Richmond we still have people writing "Richmond, Surrey" and having a belief in a place called "Middlesex" both of which ceased to be in 1965.

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