AW Original Mnemonics

Tazlima · Nov 17, 2017

Over the years I've come up with some personal mnemonic devices to help me remember different things, and I thought it would be fun to compile a thread of such items.

The only rule: It has to be something you invented yourself. It does NOT have to be 100% original, so if you look it up and discover that other people have created the same mnemonic, that's OK.

I'll go first:

To remember the difference between "less" and "fewer."

One, two, a few.
Less is a guess. (that is, you can eyeball quantities of non-countable substances to see which has less, but probably won't be able to quantify exactly how much less just by looking).

To remember which one is "spayed" and which one is "neutered," just count the syllables to see which sex is referenced.
"Spay" has one syllable, and one uterus is removed.
"Neuter" has two syllables, and two testicles are removed.

Who else has one?

JDlugosz · Nov 17, 2017

These aren’t completely original so much as collected and refined. Some people are insensitive to homonyms, and these are for them:

his/her/its for a set. None of them have an apostrophe! Writing it’s for its is no different from writing hi’s for his.
it’s is always it is or it has.

here/there are a matched pair. Notice that they are spelled nearly the same!
their is the possessive pronoun. Notice the echo of the rule where you change the terminal y to i when adding a suffix… they ⇒ their Just like the previous tip, there is no apostrophe in a possessive pronoun.
they’re is a contraction for they are. Look at the tip above: no apostrophes in possessive pronouns. If there is one, it’s a contraction.

for completeness,
hear is related to the ear.
Not to be confused with here, discussed above.

Marlys · Nov 17, 2017

Loose is longer than lose because it's relaxed and spreads out. Lose is shorter than loose because it's lost an O.

Jaymz Connelly · Nov 17, 2017

Dessert has two S's because you always want more dessert, but desert only has one S because who wants to be stuck in a desert twice?

Tazlima · Nov 20, 2017

These are awesome!

jennontheisland · Nov 21, 2017

Not really a mnemonic(?) but tomorrow is three words: tom. or. row.
(because I could never remember if it had a double m or double r)

Tazlima · Nov 22, 2017

jennontheisland said:
Not really a mnemonic(?) but tomorrow is three words: tom. or. row.
(because I could never remember if it had a double m or double r)

Sure it counts! It helps you remember information, right?

Just like Connecticut is "Connect-I-cut," and together is "to-get-her." (Neither of these are original to me, but I never spell either one wrong!)

AW Original Mnemonics

Tazlima

JDlugosz

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.

Jaymz Connelly

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Tazlima

jennontheisland

the world is at my command

Tazlima