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A mnemonic (pronounced: /nih-MON-ik/) is something, such as a word, rhyme or image, that helps you to remember a word or phrase. Mnemonics are very important to help you remember words or phrases when studying a language. It doesn't matter how strange or silly they are as long as it helps you to remember. An example in English is for the word ‘Rhythm’, which is difficult even for native English speakers to spell, is; Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move. Take the first letters of each word and it spells ‘Rhythm’. Mnemonics don’t have to be for spelling they can be something in your language that helps you to remember a word in English or any other language.
When I was studying Spanish in Spain in 2005 I struggled with the words 'cuchilla' which means knife and 'cucharra' which means spoon. I then realised that the two Ls in cuchilla look like knives and after that I never had a problem remembering which was which.
Another language I speak is Polish which is considered one of the hardest languages to learn. Therefore, I have many mnemonics for Polish. The verb to shave is 'golic sie' and I think of the character Gollum from The Lord of the Rings shaving. The word for tree is 'drzewo' and door is 'drzewi' which can be quite confusing, so I think of the letter 'o' in 'drzewo' and I imagine it as a bushy tree and the ‘I’ in ‘drzewi’ as an upright door. If you visualise words and letters with objects it can help you to remember. The word for enough is 'wystarczy' and I see the word 'star' in the middle of the word and it helps me to remember 'there are enough stars in the sky'.
Mnemonics don’t have to be used just for languages they can be used for many things such as mathematics, geography, history etc. To remember what happened to King Henry VIII’s 6 wives and the order it happened in there’s the mnemonic rhyme which is 'divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived'. If you say it out loud you should be able to hear the rhyme.
Do you know any useful mnemonics for English or other languages?
Please let me know if you have any questions!
James
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