I thought I’d share this one day in a thread. But hey, maybe the information deserves a thread of its own. Why not?
I took a computer class about thirty years ago. And for the first time I was exposed to a queue. In case you don’t know, that is basically what we call a line in the good ole USA. But in the UK, Canada, and I am sure just about every place else, it is called a queue. In any event that is not important. It is how you remember how to spell the word. Looks complicated, I know. But actually, it is just ‘Q’. Then two ‘U-Es’ in a row. That’s it. Yeah, I finally had to drop out of the computer courses. The first couple were rudimentary. But it got more and more complicated, as the courses progressed. That’s not relevant to this thread. But I thought I would just let you know how that ended. (Believe it or not, I do apparently hold an Associates’ Degree from community college. But that isn’t relevant either .)
This next one another poster here on SDMB told me long ago, when I misspelled ‘principal’. I wonder if the poster is still here. Because it did make an impression on me. You see, morals make up principles. But the guy who manages the school is called the principal. Anyways, all you have to remember is that the principal is your ‘pal’. Get it?
Anyone else have some easy way to remember how to spell some not-too-easy words ?
In the late 90s, as the end-times approached, a column in the Seattle free weekly had a helpful mnemonic for spelling millennium, and I’ve never forgotten it:
Two n’s and two l’s,
You’ve spelled it quite well.
One l or one n,
You’re a big fat stupid hen.
Not exactly spelling, but it helps me to remember the meaning:
Stalagmites and stalactites are “Stalagmiten” and “Stalaktiten” in German. For the life of me I never could remember which was which, but then I came up with this: “Mieten” in German are rents, and “Titten”, you guessed it, tits. Rents go up, and tits are hanging, so now I never forget.
Fun fact: such mnemonics are called “Eselsbrücken”, literally donkey bridges.
OK, so the principal (noun) is your pal, right? But you have to remember, she’s also the principal (adjective) staff member of the school. Thus: the principal idea in a book, etc. Not principle.
When figuring out whether to use “to” or “too” I just say it in then sentence I’m going to use it in with an exaggerated “toooooo” sound.
“That soup is tooooo hot.” Sounds okay so I use too.
“I’m going tooooo the store.” Sounds wrong so I use to.
The building where the legislature meets is the capitol – the ‘o’ is shaped like the dome on top. Or I guess you could imagine the o is the shape of the rotunda as seen from above.
If you’re talking about papER, it’s stationERy. If it’s stAying still, it’s statonAry. Not spelling, but it’s nauseous/poisonous, nauseated/poisoned. I could use help for disinterested and uninterested. It’s a nice distinction it would be sad to lose
A couple of elemental ones-
There is NO flour in fluorine!
Who is the phos phor? US! (Phosphorus. The ninth graders never had a problem with the two ph’s, but they always wanted to add an extra u or o in there somewhere.)
Spy magazine once ran a one-panel cartoon showing a cave with two groups of formations covered in women’s clothing, labeled, “Transvestites and transvestmites”.
.)