Post # 1
Member
2313 posts
Buzzing bee
In another thread, a couple people posted tricks they have for remembering the correct usage of a certain word (stationery/stationary, effect/affect, etc.) and I was wondering what everyone’s tricks are for remembering certain terms/words/spellings.
When I’m on a boat, I remember that port is left and starboard is right because PORT has four letters and so does LEFT.
And my fourth grade teacher told us a story once about how a guy named Tom rowed her out to a little island in a lake for a picnic lunch and afterward, he asked her to kiss him. She wouldn’t, so he said she could row herself back to shore: TOM OR ROW. And I’ve never misspelled tomorrow since then.
Post # 3
Member
1807 posts
Buzzing bee
Does anyone have something similar for then and than? I feel like I ALWAYS butchet that one.
Post # 4
Member
2313 posts
Buzzing bee
@AnneTossy:
I would say to try to remember then is similar to next and they both have E’s. If what you’re talking about does not involve time or a linear movement of activities, then it is THAN.
Post # 5
Member
2871 posts
Sugar bee
I love this thread idea,
yet I have nothing to add because I am a gramatically challanged.
Keep the tips coming! I need all I can get.
Post # 6
Member
1160 posts
Bumble bee
This is super random but when you’re driving horses (oxen I guess too) you use Gee and Haw for Right and Left. A way to remember which is which is to think of someone saying sarcastically, “Gee, right!” So, Gee is right and Haw is left.
Also my 3rd grade teacher taught us the difference b/t desert and dessert in that you gain weight eating lots of deSSert, not living in the deSert.
@AnneTossy: I used to use “SAmAnthA hAs wAy more Apples thAn me…”
Post # 7
Member
1488 posts
Bumble bee
I don’t have a story for it, but I always remember “together” as TO GET HER. I could never spell it right before a friend told me that.
Post # 8
Member
11325 posts
Sugar Beekeeper
@AnneTossy: I just always remember that “then” has to do with sequence and “than” is a comparison. I don’t know if that is really a “trick” though.
Effect = outcome
Affect = to cause change
There = location
Their = possessive
They’re = they are
Aisle = row between chairs
Isle = island
The thing I always have issues with is spelling. I am a terrible speller, and I’m the worst at knowing when consonants should be doubled. Like “accommodations” will take me 3 tries because I never know if the c or the m or both should be doubled. Or “embarrassed”… again a few tries. Luckily I can control+click (or right click on PC) over a word that is misspelled (oh it just took me two tries to spell “misspelled” because I missed the double “s”… the irony haha) and a list of options usually comes up.
Post # 9
Member
7695 posts
Bumble Beekeeper
I before e except after C and the one thats weird
Post # 10
Member
5118 posts
Bee Keeper
@AnneTossy: I remember it like the other PP mentioned: then is like next, and than is like rather.
it’s and its- I always say “it’s an it is contraction, its doesn’t own an apostrophe” since usually an apostrophe is a contraction or a possessive.
I also remember the definition of affect as ‘to have an effect on,’ which shows me that effect is the noun, affect is the verb.
Post # 11
Member
206 posts
Helper bee
@PitBullLover: or when sounding like “ay” as in Neighbour or Weigh
And also being.
and either, neither, caffeine, codeine, counterfeit, foreign, forfeit, height, leisure, protein, their, weird, seize and seizure.
And Weimeramer.
Really it’s just a crappy rule. You just have to memorize your spellings.
Mine spelling was fine until I learned that rule, and I fixed all my words to follow it, including bieng. Then I fixed being, and broke all the other words I sed to be able to spell.
Post # 12
Member
19 posts
Newbee
Dessert vs Desert.
Dessert has the additional ‘s’ because it is sooooo delicious… or something like that – my memory sucks.
Or something my Mom mentioned from an old show is that the Principal is your “pal” to differentiate between principle and Principal 🙂
Post # 13
Member
2600 posts
Sugar bee
These are totally taking me back to elementary school 🙂
Post # 14
Member
852 posts
Busy bee
gah! I love the TOM OR ROW one!
also, (dis)a (pee pee) in the ear = disappear (or appear)
besides the affect and effect one I posted in other threads, I can’t really think of any – grammar always came naturally to me, which is why I became an English teacher 🙂
Post # 15
Member
19 posts
Newbee
@thewheelsonthebus: Your yellow schoolbus is taking me back to elementary school! 
Post # 16
Member
5118 posts
Bee Keeper
**disclaimer** not grammar (which is ar, not er, grammer <-that’s how I teach it to people) but math:
When multiplying something by 9 (so 9×7), hold your 10 fingers out in front of you, count over to the 7th one from the left to right (so your right hand index finger would be 7). Put it down, and you get 6 one one side, 3 on the other = 63. 9×3 means your left middle finger goes down and you have 2 and 7 = 27.
*I hated multiplication tables, especially 7 and 9, but I never learned this until I was a TA and my 2nd grader was doing it. GENIUS!
