# Do other languages have as nifty a mnemonic as "righty tighty, lefty loosy"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 26, 2022, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806 "2022-10-26T05:02:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/1 "2022-10-26T05:02:01Z")
I mean, four simple words, including both a rhyme and an alliteration? That’s positively elegant and I bet no one EVER forgets it once they’ve heard it.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/2 "2022-10-26T05:22:36Z")
[ ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/4f31eda8cb127c78280d11d8/98b7bd87-5548-4a97-a3b2-33e3add963dd/Righty_Tighty_Lefty_Loosey_cropped.png?format=1500w)
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### Author:  [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/3 "2022-10-26T09:23:04Z")
Try a different frame of reference. For the bolt itself (or a little person standing on the head of the bolt), if it’s being tightened you are turning right, if it’s being loosened you are turning left.
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### Author:  [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/4 "2022-10-26T11:01:11Z")
The OP wasn’t asking anybody to explain how bolts turn.
smh
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/5 "2022-10-26T11:17:15Z")
Quick web search implies there isn’t an easy, fortuitous equivalent in Spanish, but there is this (from Reddit):
“'I’ve heard “la derecha oprime y la izquierda libera”. Mnemonic rule and political statement, all in one.”
That’s because it can also be understood as “The right oppresses, the left liberates.”
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/6 "2022-10-26T11:21:40Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> That’s because it can also be understood as “The right oppresses, the left liberates.”
It’s a political statement? I thought it meant, “Turn right to tighten a bottle cap, nut, screw/etc, turn left to loosen it.”
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/7 "2022-10-26T11:23:52Z")
The joke is that it can be read as both
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/8 "2022-10-26T13:31:08Z")
The diagram was meant as a joke. I failed to notice this was Factual Questions and that was inappropriate. I apologize.
The site I got the diagram from did have a useful mnemonic that might more easily translate to other languages, “Time is Tight”, meaning clockwise, which is more descriptive than righty-tighty.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPlrctvIaI)
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### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/9 "2022-10-26T20:08:18Z")
There needs to be a phrase for when I’m looking from one side and tightening from the other. I mean, I know that it works exactly the opposite way but I still have to convince myself that things are backwards Every. Damn. Time.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/10 "2022-10-26T20:46:39Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> The diagram was meant as a joke. I failed to notice this was Factual Questions and that was inappropriate. I apologize.
I don’t see it as a joke. That’s exactly why I never understood that phrase. If it needs to be qualified by defining the frame of reference, as suggested above by hibernicus, it’s not really very helpful.
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### Author:  [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/11 "2022-10-26T21:54:06Z")
This was exactly how I felt when my father taught me “lefty loosey, righty tighty.”
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#):
>
> There needs to be a phrase for when I’m looking from one side and tightening from the other. I mean, I know that it works exactly the opposite way but I still have to convince myself that things are backwards Every. Damn. Time.
Ratchets are perfect for this. Set the ratchet before you put it on the bolt. Then you can’t get it wrong.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2022, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/12 "2022-10-26T22:04:24Z")
According [to Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/1nq6jt/whats_your_idiom_for_righty_tighty_lefty_loosey/), there are two mnemonics in German:
> _Rechts rum geht die Kaffeemühle._ (Meaning: Go right around the coffee grinder.)
> _Seit das Deutsche Reich besteht, wird das Gewinde rechtsgedreht._ (Meaning: (ever) since the German Reich has existed, the thread has been turned to the right)
These seem less than compelling.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2022, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/13 "2022-10-27T00:54:47Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> That’s exactly why I never understood that phrase. If it needs to be qualified by defining the frame of reference, as suggested above by hibernicus, it’s not really very helpful.
I’ve never understood how people can be confused by something so simple.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2022, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/14 "2022-10-27T01:03:28Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> If it needs to be qualified by defining the frame of reference, as suggested above by hibernicus, it’s not really very helpful.
It’s no different than a steering wheel or the handlebars on a bike. As long as we’re being comprehensive, we can also say that up=tighten or down=tighten if we look at the left or right sides of the bolt head. Except that no one thinks that way; the movement of the “top” when looking face-on is assumed.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2022, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/15 "2022-10-27T01:04:02Z")
It’s a fascinating question, and I’m finding it extremely difficult to search for any mnemonics at all in other languages: every combination of search terms is returning mnemonics for _learning_ other languages. Does anyone have any ideas how even to search for mnemonics in, say, French or Spanish?
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2022, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/16 "2022-10-27T04:38:09Z")
Same here. I just tried an online translator to turn “What are the best mnemonics in French?” into “Quels sont les meilleurs moyens mnémotechniques de français ?” and I did get some nifty advice in French for how to memorize certain aspects of French grammar.
I wonder if our non-native English speaking SDMB community here could post some of the mnemonics they learned growing up, for any subject or topic.
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### Author:  [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2022, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/17 "2022-10-27T13:30:17Z")
Back in college we learned the mnemonic “Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly” (I assume this has been replaced with a more PC version) to memorize the sequence of color bands on resistors. Surely equivalent mnemonics exist in other languages?
ETA: Found a Dutch one:
**Z** ij **B** racht **R** ozen **O** p **G** errits **G** raf **B** ij **V** ies **G** rijs **W** eer (she brought roses onto [Gerrit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrit)’s grave in dirty grey weather)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2022, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/18 "2022-10-27T13:52:30Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> It’s a fascinating question, and I’m finding it extremely difficult to search for any mnemonics at all in other languages: every combination of search terms is returning mnemonics for _learning_ other languages.
After a bit of digging [I came across this list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_visual_mnemonics#Other_languages) of some visual mnemonics in other languages.
[That got me here,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mnemonics), which then made me think that different language versions of Wikipedia [might have similar pages.](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regla_mnemot%C3%A9cnica)
So searching on alternate-language Wikipedias using their word for “mnemonic” might get you lists.
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### Author:  [@slalexan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slalexan)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/19 "2022-10-27T15:03:59Z")
You all do know of the right hand rule right? It helps you determine which way the torque vector is pointing. I also use it to figure out which way to turn screws. I point my right thumb in the direction I want the screw to go and the way my fingers curl is the direction to turn it.
The mnemonic reminds me that I need to use my right hand, not my left. Not that that part makes sense, it just works for me.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2022, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806/20 "2022-10-27T16:44:52Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> According [to Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/1nq6jt/whats_your_idiom_for_righty_tighty_lefty_loosey/), there are two mnemonics in German:
>
> > _Rechts rum geht die Kaffeemühle._ (Meaning: Go right around the coffee grinder.)
>
> > _Seit das Deutsche Reich besteht, wird das Gewinde rechtsgedreht._ (Meaning: (ever) since the German Reich has existed, the thread has been turned to the right)
>
> These seem less than compelling.
German engineer here. Never heard either of them. Yeah, not compelling.
ETA: the only German mnemonic I remember in the context of tightening nuts and bolts:
_Nach fest kommt ab._
meaning something like “after tight there’s broken”, or “be careful of the torque you apply”.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-have-as-nifty-a-mnemonic-as-righty-tighty-lefty-loosy/973806.md?page=2)