Mnemonic/Catalogs/List of mnemonics in English

From Citizendium
< Mnemonic‎ | Catalogs
Revision as of 04:19, 15 April 2010 by imported>Tom Morris (→‎Spelling)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Spelling

  • "'i' before 'e' except after 'c'" is a commonly taught mnemonic rule of spelling, but it is false. The following words break the rule: conscience, society, eighty, science, atheist, leisure, heights, Eiffel (as in Eiffel Tower), beige, feisty, heinous, sheik, dreidel, geisha, Einstein, caffeine, protein, rottweiller, kaleidoscope, zeitgeist, reified.
    • To deal with the many counter-examples, sometimes the rule is extended to "'i' before 'e' except after 'c' when the sound is 'ee' or when the sound is 'a' as in neighbor and weigh".
  • Spelling of the word 'arithmentic':
    • "A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream"
  • Spelling of the word 'because':
    • "Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants"
  • Spelling of the word 'business':
    • "You take the bus to business"
  • Spelling of the word 'geography':
    • "George Eliot's old grandmother rode a pig home yesterday"
  • Spelling of the word 'Mississippi':
    • "M I crooked letter, crooked letter I, crooked letter, crooked letter I, humpback, humpback I"
  • Spelling of the word 'necessary':
    • "Never Eat Cress Eat Salad Sandwiches And Remain Youthful!"
    • "A vicar has one collar and two socks" (one 'c', two 's')
  • Spelling of 'separate':
    • "There is always a rat in 'separate'"
    • "Keep your parachute in separate"
  • Spelling of 'stationary'/'stationery':
    • "Stationery has an 'e' as in envelope, stationary has an a as in automobile"
    • "Stationery is for paper. Stationary is for parked car."

Mathematics

  • Sin = Obtuse / Hypotenuse; Cosine = Adjacent / Hypotenuse; Tangent = Obtuse / Adjacent – see trigonometry
    • SOH CAH TOA

Science

Engineering

Medicine