Tips and tricks to help with spelling/grammar etc

[kittyP]

I am usually pretty good with spelling, but one of my bugbears has always been the word "necessary". I have a mental block about the arrangement and frequency of the letters c and s in the word.

Then I heard a good mnemonic for it, which is "Never Eat Cake, Eat Salad Sandwiches", thanks to which I get it right every time now

Ooooh I'll have to remember that.
Obviously not actually eating salad sandwiches over cake

 

[Spymaster]

I am usually pretty good with spelling, but one of my bugbears has always been the word "necessary". I have a mental block about the arrangement and frequency of the letters c and s in the word.

Then I heard a good mnemonic for it, which is "Never Eat Cake, Eat Salad Sandwiches", thanks to which I get it right every time now

Unnecessarily completely does me in. I either have to look it up every time or avoid using it.

 

[emanymton]

i rely on a spellchecker.

for sentence structure, read stuff out loud. it's easier to tell if stuff makes sense that way.

Sometimes I mangle words so badly a spellchecker can't work out what I am trying to say, but Google usually can. And sometimes I have spelt a word correctly, I am just not sure it is the word I want. Also some spellchecker aren't very good (like on my mobile) or give odd results, like the correct word not appearing in the recommendations even when I am only off by a letter or 2. The one for my emails at work does this quite a lot.
Eta- Obviously I rely on spellcheckers to catch a hell of a lot of things I would completely miss otherwise.

 

[EastEnder]

Sometimes I mangle words so badly a spellchecker can't work out what I am trying to say, but Google usually can.

Google has made me extremely lazy when it comes to spelling. I get very frustrated with my spellchecker when it can't correct some hideous rambling sequence of characters that I'm certain Google would fix in a jiffy. These days I fully expect to be able to mash the keyboard like a deranged gibbon & have it effortlessly fix everything for me. Having to switch to a search engine for the worst offending ham-fisted attempts is most irksome.

 

[Saffy]

We've always used

Big elephants can't always use small exits

And

Sally Ann is dancing.

 

[BandWagon]

According to Q.I. there are more exceptions in the English language than there are conformers to this "rule".

iciest
racier
ancient
diciest
fancied
glacier
juicier
saucier
science
society
species
spicier
agencies
ancients
bouncier
fanciest
idiocies
legacies
piracies
policies
sauciest
concierge
deficient
efficient
fallacies
financier
prescient
conscience
deficiency

...and so on.

The rule clearly excepts exceptions, and only applies in cases where it is correct.

 

[BandWagon]

I have to email my colleague called Keith. And always have to check the spelling.

You probably spell it 'Keef'.

 

[emanymton]

You probably spell it 'Keef'.

I used to have a team leader called Brian, he was always getting email addressd 'dear Brain'

 

[BandWagon]

This is the full version:

I before E except after C - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


"I before E, except after C" is a mnemonic rule of thumb for English spelling. If one is unsure whether a word is spelled with the sequence ei or ie, the rhyme suggests that the correct order is ie unless the preceding letter is c, in which case it is ei. For example:

• ie in believe, fierce, collie, die, friend
• ei after c in deceive, ceiling, receipt, ceilidh

The rule is very well known; Edward Carney calls it "this supreme, and for many people solitary, spelling rule".



I have to admit that there are some exceptions, but most are excluded. Or ought to be.

 

[8115]

Oh. I thought it was a mnemonic for the para bit of parachute!

Exactly! I used to work in a secondary school and that was on the wall, I always thought, parachute isn't difficult to spell! Then one day the penny dropped, boom!

 

[BandWagon]

I used to have a team leader called Brian, he was always getting email addressd 'dear Brain'

Was it accurate or not? And why not 'Bri'?

 

[emanymton]

Was it accurate or not? And why not 'Bri'?

You mean was he a brain? Well I wouldn't say he was massively intelligent, but he was a long way from being dumb, and better than most team leaders I have had.

 

[spanglechick]

So, like necessary/success, I have one other "logical mnemonic" that I came up with, which is when signing off letters:

Yours faithfully, if you've started Dear Sir/Madam - because therse are honourifics, and I am their grovellingly faithful servant.
Yours sincerely, if you've started with their name - because you're not being cheeky by presuming to be familiar: your intentions are sincere.

 

[Orang Utan]

So, like necessary/success, I have one other "logical mnemonic" that I came up with, which is when signing off letters:

Yours faithfully, if you've started Dear Sir/Madam - because there are honourifics, and I am their grovellingly faithful servant.
Yours sincerely, if you've started with their name - because you're not being cheeky by presuming to be familiar: your intentions are sincere.

Why overcomplicate it?
Yours faithfully if you don't know their name, yours sincerely if you do

 

[spanglechick]

Why overcomplicate it?
Yours faithfully if you don't know their name, yours sincerely if you do

Mnemonics are for when you struggle to remember the rules. That's what this thread is for.

For me, I don't remember many seemingly arbitrary rules unless I can apply some logical or rational explanation to it.

 

[sleaterkinney]

Just read lots.

 

[Orang Utan]

it seems overly complicated to my mind, if it takes longer to say/read something than the actual word/rule

 

[8115]

What's the Mrs mnemonic for?

It's annoying me now that I can't remember it.

 

[Orang Utan]

What's the Mrs mnemonic for?

It's annoying me now that I can't remember it.

what do you mean?

 

[8115]

what do you mean?

It's like Mrs M Mrs I Mrs PPY Mrs P Mrs Y Mrs LEI

Or something but those aren't the letters.

 

[spanglechick]

Mississippi?

 

[Orang Utan]

It's like Mrs M Mrs I Mrs PPY Mrs P Mrs Y Mrs LEI

Or something but those aren't the letters.

what?

 

[fishfinger]

It's like Mrs M Mrs I Mrs PPY Mrs P Mrs Y Mrs LEI

Or something but those aren't the letters.

Mrs M, Mrs I, Mrs S S I, Mrs S S I, Mrs P P I, Mississippi

 

[spanglechick]

I remember that by chanting the letters in Waltz-time:

m
I-s-s
I-s-s
I-p-p
I

(You hit the "i" hard in each triplet).

 

[kittyP]

Why overcomplicate it?
Yours faithfully if you don't know their name, yours sincerely if you do

Because I do not remember that.
I think Spangles way would help me remember more easily.

 

[fishfinger]

I remember that by chanting the letters in Waltz-time:

m
I-s-s
I-s-s
I-p-p
I

(You hit the "i" hard in each triplet).

That's the one I learned too.

 

[toggle]

Sometimes I mangle words so badly a spellchecker can't work out what I am trying to say, but Google usually can. And sometimes I have spelt a word correctly, I am just not sure it is the word I want. Also some spellchecker aren't very good (like on my mobile) or give odd results, like the correct word not appearing in the recommendations even when I am only off by a letter or 2. The one for my emails at work does this quite a lot.
Eta- Obviously I rely on spellcheckers to catch a hell of a lot of things I would completely miss otherwise.

i tend to start thinking of alternative words at that point.


for the work emails thing, composing the text in a program with a smarter spellchecker is one alternative

 

[EastEnder]

This is the full version:

I before E except after C - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


"I before E, except after C" is a mnemonic rule of thumb for English spelling. If one is unsure whether a word is spelled with the sequence ei or ie, the rhyme suggests that the correct order is ie unless the preceding letter is c, in which case it is ei. For example:

• ie in believe, fierce, collie, die, friend
• ei after c in deceive, ceiling, receipt, ceilidh

The rule is very well known; Edward Carney calls it "this supreme, and for many people solitary, spelling rule".



I have to admit that there are some exceptions, but most are excluded. Or ought to be.

A rule that only works if you exclude all the times it doesn't work, which apparently outnumber the times it does work?

As a man of science, in all good conscience, it would be deficient of me to accept the sufficiency of a rule with such inadequacies in today's society, given the illiteracies & inaccuracies caused by a rule of such inefficiency.

 

[Sirena]

Which is the impostor?
http://grammarist.com/spelling/imposter-impostor/

 

[Santino]

it seems overly complicated to my mind, if it takes longer to say/read something than the actual word/rule

The point of many mnemonics is not to pack knowledge into a small space, but to weigh it down with meaning so that it sticks in the mind more easily.