Friday, 7 June 2013

misspelling of the words stationary and stationery

I've posted previously about how I remember the difference between the words stationery and stationary. My sister does it by thinking of the word car, and the fact that a car moves and is spelled with ar. Something that is stationary doesn't move. Hmm...I sort of see the logic of this one.

My method is to say that in a stationery shop there will be envelopes, and envelope begins with the letter 'e'.

I was in a great little store at Westfield Doncaster today,  called daiso. I love this store, with its huge range of bits and pieces to make life easy. It's a bit like the Tardis, small on the outside but enormous on the inside.

I was with a group of teachers, and needless to say we're nit-pickers when it comes to spelling, so of course I pointed out this sign:

Loved the immediate quip by one of my friends. 'Well, the stock on that  display's not going to move fast.'


proud womon said...

it's one of those words that so many get wrong... i've always remembered the difference using your style of logic parlance - 'e' for exercise book, so stationery with an 'e' has to do with writing, paper, etc. (although in this age of computers youngsters may not make the connection...)

parlance said...

proud womon, now I know we're the same vintage. Do kids these days even call them exercise books? I'm still doing some tutoring, so I'll check up on this one. Maybe they don't ever go into a stationer's shop, lol.
Perhaps they stand around with a tablet or iPad in their hands, so maybe we should all start spelling it 'stationary'.

Mary said...

Actually, I remember it because a car can be mobile or stationary.

parlance said...

Oh Mary, I see I got it mixed up. It was my logic that was back-to-front! Cars can be stationary. Now I think I'm going to remember that even more easily. Thanks!