It occurred to me today to write about mnemonics. They're so helpful for remembering complicated things. Some look like acronyms, and others are more like sayings. I remember a physics formula I just couldn’t get my head around, and coming up with a silly, funny phrase totally saved my butt on a test. It went something like this:
Since I don’t really know any mnemonics in English, I asked our “false friend” ChattyPT. It unrolled a long list of them, like a Roman messenger’s parchment. All umpteen of them were pretty boring, though, until one caught my eye. It goes like this:
“When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.”
Really? Why didn't anyone tell me that before? Do English philologist know it?
I got really excited about it, though all my expectations went down the drain when I put it into practice. Try to apply the mnemonic to this yourself:
"You said your friend bought some bread."
Did you make it? Congratulations. Now you know how whales speak. Exceptions to golden rules are disappointingly common. Still, having a few tricks up your sleeve makes learning the language a little less annoying, and a lot more fun.
God By. Have a gret day!
"Loss angle" has always been one of my favorite names of a physical quantity.
Interesting choice, @quassnoi. It's too bad physics has never been on my side.
My favourite mnemonic is for the planets: My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming. Of course, Pluto isn't a planet anymore so you can't end it with the word Planets to make it make sense. Still, this nonsensical phrase will be stuck in my head forever.
@schmamie In German, this mnemonic is: Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unseren Nachthimmel. (literally: My dad explains to me every Sunday our night sky.) And in former times when Pluto was still included, it was: Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten. (literally: My dad explains to me every Sunday our nine planets.)
@Coral, is there something like that for the planets in Spanish?
@schmamie I learned the planets just by saying their names in a row. That's why it felt so unfair removing Pluto from the list. It feels unfinished.😥 It's like saying the pinky isn't a finger anymore. It still is, isn't it?😀
@LindasLinguas There isn't one, as far as I know. I guess every teacher comes up with their own. But your mnemonics reminded me of one: “Un día vi una vieja vestida de urbano.” (One day I saw an old woman dressed as a traffic officer) Funnily enough, I remembered the sentence, but I didn’t remember what it was for.😅 I had to look it up online. It’s used for integration by parts ∫u dv = uv − ∫v du
I remember in school people would hold up their hand and ask "how many fingers am I holding up?" You answer 5, of course, and they tell you it's actually 4 because the thumb isn't a finger. The rest are index finger, middle finger, ring finger, pinky finger, but the thumb is just thumb. Stupid, isn't it?
@schmamie I had no idea! Now the Merriam Webster definition makes more sense to me: Definition "Any of the five terminating members of the hand : a digit of the forelimb especially : one other than the thumb.
We just call the thumb “finger” more commonly known as “dedo gordo (de la mano / del pie)” literally “the fat finger (of the hand / of the foot).” 😀 Thanks for letting me know!
@Coral : "loss angle" is the second term in the argument to the sine in your equation. There's even a device called "loss angle meter", which one would think would look like a protractor, but it's actually an electronic device with a digital scale.
@schmamie : in Russian, even toes are "fingers", there's no separate word for them. The Russian fingers are "big finger", "pointing finger", "middle finger", "nameless finger", and "little brother".
@quassnoi Oh, you mean you recognized the equation. That's impressive. You must be both a science and a literature person. Somehow, “loss angle” brings the two disciplines together. : )