MORE WAYS TO HELP WITH THOSE COMMONLY CONFUSED WORDS

A visitor has sent in more ways to remember some of more confusing words in the English language:-

WEATHER and WHETHER

Heather likes the weather hot (and if there is confusion about the spelling of heather, it grows on a heath).

Whether it is here or whether it is there, whether is not quite where nor there

PLACE WORDS

Place words are always "here"

Here (in this place)

There (in that place)

Where (in which place)

Nowhere (in no place)

Elsewhere (in another place)

Somewhere (in some place)

Their (it belongs to them)

Heir (it will, eventually, belong to them...)

if there is no heir, it is not theirs.

They're = "they are". The apostrophe replaces the missing letter or letters, as in don't, can't, shan't. This is the only meaning of they're.

THAN OR THEN

THAN is used as a comparison e.g. is my book better THAN yours?

THEN is used for time e.g. read this book first then answer the questions.

THEN = THE NEXT

Alex K

Hear - you use your EARs to hEAR

On a journey we go HERE and tHERE

Lucy Stevens

LOSE or LOOSE

LOSE is to misplace

LOOSE - not tight

LOSE AN 'O'

Alex K

MEET or MEAT

MEET = socialise

MEAT = food

EAT in MEAT

Alex K

DEFINITELY

Smile polITELY and write definITELY.

Alex K

;

TOO - TWO - TO

Too has too MANY o's and this sentence does too.

This includes both contexts of too and aids spelling too. It is important to stress the word many to avoid confusion with the number.

Q. What is the owl's telephone number?

A. Two eight - two eight - "two".

To remember the major uses of to, remember go to and to go (or to do). Remember that to matches the spelling of go and do.

Commonly miswritten letters

b and d

Write the word b e d in lower case to remember which way round the b and the d go.

It should look like a bed. The headboard and footboard should be at the end, not in the middle.

S - Write the word So.

Picture it as a snake about to eat an egg. If the s is back to front, the egg will be about to slurp up the snake!

My daughter uses the following for spelling NECESSARY.

Never Eat Chips Eat Salad Sandwiches And Raspberry Yoghurt.

Unlike the variants on your web site, this carries a very sensible health message that does not breach trade description legislation!

A way to remember how to spell DIFFICULTY sent in by Fiona Flynn

Mrs D, Mrs I, Mrs FFI, Mrs C, Mrs U, Mrs LTY

Shelagh Spurway has sent in the following mnemonic to remember the spelling of the word ANSWER

“A Negative Score Will Equal Relegation”.

..for those footie fans this should be an easy one to remember.

An easy way to remember which are STALAGMITES and which are STALACTITES -

StalaGmites - are in the ground

StalaCtites - are from the ceiling

Finally, a slightly risqué method of remembering the difference.

Gee, the mites fly up and see the tights fall down!

Think of ants in your pants: The mites go up and the tights come down.

Chris Roerden

(I would point out to non-English English speakers that tights are pantyhose).

Other useful information of a similar nature can be found here and here.

Mnemonics and Palindromes

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