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Your useful mnemonic devices

SilentPanda

SilentPanda

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Oct 8, 2002
9,997
33
The Bamboo Forest
What are some mnemonic devices you have used seemingly forever?

I use the following and some more probably...

  • Never Eat Shredded Wheat - North East South West, the directions of the compass going clockwise.
  • Tom or row - how to spell "tomorrow".
  • Desert/dessert - Desert has one s for Sand, dessert has two s's for Sweet Stuff.
  • Lose/loose - Lose lost an "o". Loose has has two o's loosely next to each other (no it doesn't make sense to be either but I remember it!)
There's some obvious ones that I don't use very often relating to the notes on a scale or the colors of the rainbow...

What ones do you have? Maybe what you type here will be ingrained in other users memories for the rest of their lives! :eek:
 

  • Naughty elephants squirt water North south east west
    Cash rules everything around me - CREAM

cant think a any more lol
 
  • Lefty loosey right tighty
  • Never Ever Support Watford - Local adaption and is probably used whenever people live in or near places start with a W.
  • Stalactights hang down (then I have trouble spelling stalactites) :D
  • There is no port left in the bottle

SilentPanda said:
[*]Desert/dessert - Desert has one s for Sand, dessert has two s's for Sweet Stuff.
Click to expand...

I use dessert has more s' as you always want more.
 
To learn the names and order of the carpel bones, I made up a very dirty mnemonic (that I won't repeat here). Same for the branches of the brachial plexus (the clean part: Randy Travis Drinks Coors = Roots, Trunks, Divisions, Cords)

I just had a exam in Internal Auditing, which consisted of having to memorize lists of seemingly unrelated facts, and then regurgitating said lists for over 2 hours on a 33 page exam. These lists were usually 10-20 items long (sometimes each item had one or two words, sometimes full sentences), and there were probably 15-20 lists. Besides maintaining an understanding of the material, I had no choice but to create ridiculous mnemonics to memorize everything.
 
I don't use mnemonics..lol. I just know how to spell stuff on my own.

Other than in Spanish, can't for the life of me remember if delante or detras is front.
 
^^^^ Damn you skunk!!! :D

fireshot91 said:
I don't use mnemonics..lol. I just know how to spell stuff on my own.
Click to expand...

That's not what a mnemonic is necessarily used for.

mnemonic: a device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that assists in remembering something.

As I mentioned, I use them to help me remember long lists of words/sentences that, otherwise, would be impossible to remember.

For example, here's a short one that I made up for the operational auditing procedures of Advertising: R, CSI, I, I'M, ME, C?

I used that to remember this:
  1. Review and examine advertising policies and budgets.
  2. Classify the major types of advertisements.
  3. Select a sample of different types of advertisements.
  4. Identify the cost of each type of advertisement.
  5. Identify the scope of each type of advertisement.
  6. Investigate related complaints and litigation.
  7. Measure the effect of each type of advertisement on sales trends.
  8. Measure the effect of each type of advertisement on competitor's sales.
  9. Examine each advertisement from the auditor's personal standpoint.
  10. Compare each advertisement to competitors' advertisements.

Without the mnemonic, I would have remembered the concept of the procedures, but I definitely would have had a hard time remembering each step and the order of the steps.
 
There's so many for Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus it's untrue.

All the one's I've been told start with 'Kinky' and go down hill from there....
 
As we seem to be talking acronyms here, and although it's totally off-topic, I thought I'd add a conversation with a waitress, just for fun:
FUNEX?
SVFX.
FUNEM?
SVFM.
LFMNX.​
 
I thought this was going to be about power tools :eek:.

Not used anymore but my favourite from junior school was you spend Friday with Friends.
 
capoeirista said:
There's so many for Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus it's untrue.

All the one's I've been told start with 'Kinky' and go down hill from there....
Click to expand...

Apparently you need a better mnemonic cause you forgot Species! :)

I was given "Kevin Put a Cover On Fathers Gun Sunday". Of course you have to drop the "a" but that was easy enough.
 
SilentPanda said:
Apparently you need a better mnemonic cause you forgot Species! :)

I was given "Kevin Put a Cover On Fathers Gun Sunday". Of course you have to drop the "a" but that was easy enough.
Click to expand...

Heh heh, fail. It's late and all day of thesis writing has gotten to me!
 
The 14 leadership traits:

JJ DID TIE BUCKLE

Yeah, it's an acronym. But the fact that it's a pronouncable acronym kinda makes it a mnemonic too.
 
Many Very Elderly Men Just Sleep Unless Nudged Periodically

For the planets,

Although they don't require a periodical nudging any longer.

Edit: I remembered a useful one. To spell necessary - One collar and two sleeves.
 
skunk said:
As we seem to be talking acronyms here, and although it's totally off-topic, I thought I'd add a conversation with a waitress, just for fun:
FUNEX?
SVFX.
FUNEM?
SVFM.
LFMNX.​
Click to expand...

Did you go back to your place or to hers?

Isn't an acronym a type of mnemonic?
 
Surely said:
Did you go back to your place or to hers?
Click to expand...
Hers was closer. No, really, you'll have to try harder...

Isn't an acronym a type of mnemonic?
Click to expand...
It can be a code, which is practically the opposite of a mnemonic, as in the reported acronym used in letters home from returning servicemen in WW2: NORWICH.
kNickers Off, Ready When I Come Home :)
 
skunk said:
Hers was closer. No, really, you'll have to try harder...
Click to expand...

I'll have to work on it later..... I'm off to the gym!

It can be a code, which is practically the opposite of a mnemonic, as in the reported acronym used in letters home from returning servicemen in WW2: NORWICH.
kNickers Off, Ready When I Come Home :)
Click to expand...

I know that one!

But if a mnemonic is a device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that assists in remembering something, NORWICH (and other acronyms) would fall under that definition, no?
 
Surely said:
But if a mnemonic is a device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that assists in remembering something, NORWICH (and other acronyms) would fall under that definition, no?
Click to expand...

Pretty much.

The mnemonic uses words not associated with the subject to help remember the first letter of a sequence of words or the letters of one word. The acronym uses the letters from the sequence to be remembered to make a word that can be anunciated to recall that sequence. So they're kind of opposites with the same purpose.
 
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