SPELLING AIDS

SPELLING AIDS

"Mnemonics Neatly Eliminate Man's Only Nemesis (Insufficient Cerebral Storage)"

There is a long tradition of using mnemonics to help with spelling, although the example above (using the word "mnemonic" in recalling how to spell itself) is meant for fun rather than actual practical use!

Here are some mnemonic aids for spelling to assist in teaching or learning written English. They are all in the form of "acrostics" (sentences where the first letter of each word makes up another word):

From Barbara D. Martin (9/00):

To spell the word "geography":
- George Evans' Old Grandmother Rode A Pig Home Yesterday.

To spell "arithmetic":
- A Rat In The House Might Eat The Ice Cream
- A Rat In Tom's House May Eat Tom's Ice Cream!

R.Beck tells us (9/00) that she never writes the word calendar without subvocalizing "Daughters of the American Revolution" to get the ending correct. Very appropriate, as a calendar is a date/time system and a calender is a machine for smoothing paper between rollers.

Here are two spelling aids sent in by Marcus Lewis-Price (10/00):

To remember the start of "beautiful":
- Big Elephants Are Ugly.

To spell "necessary":
- Never Eat Cake, Eat Salmon Sandwiches And Remain Young.

A separate page details the rare few spelling rules that exist for the English language.