Spelling and Grammar

A friend is always there when the end comes.

For those who always look at "friend" and think that it looks wrong - emailed to me by kcomer@metronet.com.

General Eisenhower's oldest girl rode a pony home yesterday.

How to spell Geography! Thanks, silmaril@kuentos.guam.net.

George eats old gray rats and paints houses yellow.

Also how to spell Geography. This one is from wildcats@psci.net - thanks!

George Ellen's Old Grandmother Rode A Pig Home Yesterday.

And again ... from rlands@bellatlantic.net

I before E except after C
And when saying "A" as in Neighbor or Weigh
And weird is weird.

That's fairly self-explanatory. This is one I have to whisper to myself EVERY time I spell "receive" (I whispered it again, just now, typing that word!). Thanks to cedric@pts.mot.com for providing the last line of the rhyme. Of course, icyblood@infowest.com points out that there are about 200 words that don't follow this rule, as in "kaleidoscope".

Separate is A RAT of a word to spell

To remember to spell separate correctly, instead of "seperate". Emailed to me by bntfkap@northstar.k12.ak.us! She also sent along:

When two vowels go walking the first does the talking

For words like "oat" or "eat"). And:

The silent 'e' makes the vowel say its name

For words like cap/cape and hat/hate.

Once there was a young woman named Sep. He was violently afraid of rodents, especially rats. One day, her little brother, who was a very cruel, unfeeling child, tapped her shoulder, and yelled "Sep, a rat!" Her response, of course, was a loud "Eeeeeee!"

This is a very clever story to remind a person how to spell "separate." Thank you, Whitney Cohen, for this.

A Rat In The House Might Eat The Ice Cream

The first letter of each word spells Arithmetic!

A rat in Tom's house may eat tom's ice cream

Same song, different verse.

Would you rather have one S or two? Twice as much for dessert.

deSSert - two s's; desert - one s.

When you eat "dessert", you always want to come back for the second "s".

Another desert/dessert mnemonic, from callisto@dorsai.org

sweet stuff

Dessert has double esses (thanks to Darlene.K.Carlson.2@nd.edu)

Strawberry Shortcake

Dessert has two s's in it ... like Strawberry Shortcake. Thanks to MARAGONA@prodigy.net!

A Dessert is Super Sloppy; A Desert is Sandy

Yet more ways to remember "dessert" vs. "desert" ... from SD2404@aol.com. Thanks!

The word "believe" has "lie" in it

Also contributed by callisto@dorsai.org, who appears to love mnemonics as much as I do!

Your principal is your PAL

The difference between Principle and PrinciPAL... thanks, edlindabowes@itl2.itlnet.net, for sending me this!

The sailor's favorite boat was named "PAN CAP IV"

Parts of Speech: Pronoun, Adverb, Noun, Conjunction, Adjective, Preposition, Interjection, Verb

RAVEN

R emember
A ffect
V erb
E ffect
N oun
To remember when to use "affect" vs "effect" ... pkokkoros@sprint.ca uses this in her ESL classroom.

"To get her"

Remember how to spell "together" by noting that if you "get her," you'll be "together!" (Thanks, gfarrelly@hoopp.com.)

When you assume something you make an "ass" of "u" and "me."

This is how you spell "assume." It's also a great reminder to avoid assumptions! Thanks again to gfarrelly@hoopp.com, who sent an email full of mnemonics.

One collar, two socks.

A reminder on how to spell "necessary." Thank you, Michael, for this one.

Rhythm has your two hands moving!

Here's how to spell "Rhythm!" I'm going to use this one frequently, because I've always had to look it up before now. Thanks, conage@hotmail.co.uk!

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All information herein copyrighted by Amanda Hargis,