Mnemonics: Helps to Spell
Mnemonics is defined as a special aid to memory from the Greek word to remember. It is a memory "trick" based on association of ideas.
- All ready and already
- If you can drop the "all," use two words.
- All right
- There is no such word as alright. All right is written as two words, like "all wrong."
- Argument
- I lost an "e" in that argument.
- Attendance
- Remember attendance at the dance.
- Business
- Contrary to some views, there is no sin in business.
- Cemetery
- There are three e's buried in cemetery.
- Chocolate
- Oh-oh, chocolate.
- Competence
- You must be competent to compete.
- Complement and compliment
- The full complement (the complete number) is twenty. I like compliments.
- Conscience
- There is science in conscience.
- Courageous
- Keep courage and your e in courageous.
- Desert
- The desert has sand and only one s.
- Dessert
- Most people like lots of dessert, so dessert has two s's.
- Expense
- Expense means lots of money. Or expen$e.
- Height
- The wall is eight feet in height.
- It's
- It is necessary to use an apostrophe for it's.
- Its
- Its apostrophe is dropped for possession.
- Judgment
- A judge drops the e when he makes a judgment.
- Laboratory
- You labor at something in a laboratory.
- Necessary and professor
- In necessary and professor the count is one, two — one c and two s's, one f and two s's.
- Neither
- Neither has either in it.
- Ninety
- Ninety has nine in it.
- Piece
- Remember a piece of pie.
- Potatoes
- They have eyes and toes.
- Principal
- Principal is always an adjective except the principal of a school, who is your pal. The rule you follow is always a principle (which is always a noun).
- Privilege
- Remember two i's and two e's.
- Separate
- Separate has a rat in it.
- Stationery
- Like a letter on stationery, there are always e's.
- Their
- The heir owns the money in their.
- There
- The place here is in there.
- Together
- Remember to + get + her.
- Vaccine
- Vaccine is meassured in cubic centimeters (cc's).
- Who's and whose
- Who is leaving out the apostrophe in who's? Whose hose is in the garden?
Spelling Hints for Word Endings
- Use -ance, -ant endings for nouns meaning persons:
- tenant, occupant, attendant
Exceptions: superintendent, president, resident
- Use -ence, -ent endings after a stem ending in "i":
- audience, experience, sufficient
- Use after -qu:
- consequence, eloquent, frequent, frequency
- Use after Latin stems -fer:
- conference, reference, preference
- And others: -min, -spond, -here, -fur, -sist, -cur
- vermin, respond or correspond, where, sulfur, consist or insist or persist, concur or occur or recur.
- Use -ense when it is part of the original word:
- sense, tense, expense, license
nonsense, pretense, suspense
- Use -ary for an adjective ending:
- ordinary, necessary
- Use -ary when it refers to people:
- secretary, missionary
- Use -ery for words pertaining to an occupation or place of occupation:
- nursery, stationery (shop), pottery, creamery
- Use -ory when it is easy to hear:
- compulsory, satisfactory, accessory
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