Learning by association is fun

My youngest daughter is four. She is only just learning to read, and while she stumbles on some of the easier three-letter words, such as ‘toe’, she can spell ‘because’ without a moment’s pause. She does it with the help of imaginary elephants.

For her older sister has taught her the mnemonic Big Elephants Can’t Always Use Small Exits.

To me it feels cumbersome, but to a small child the unusual image and the tum-ti-tum rhythm are instantly memorable.

A mnemonic is any learning technique designed to aid memory - the term goes back to the Greek for to remember. The best-known rely on acronyms and letter associations. For example, many will have learnt Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain at junior school to help remember the colours of the rainbow.

But the mnemonics used to remember spellings are strange beasts. Often they are infinitely more complicated than the word they purport to make easy.

Surely the eight letters in argument are easier to commit to memory than A Rude Girl Undresses - My Eyes Need Taping?

But such mnemonics work by fixing an unexpected and memorable image in one’s mind - a big elephant or a undressed girl.

Indeed, tests have shown that the human brain is better at retaining a grouping of odd and disparate items or ideas than it is at remembering a series of letters or numbers.

Of course, it would be wonderful if we could all remember how to spell in the first place. But, for many, certain words remain little more than guesswork.

A recent survey revealed that one in five adults can’t master words such as necessary, definitely and separate. Computer spell-check technology has produced an auto-correct generation, unable to remember simple spellings, and too lazy to consult a dictionary.

I sympathise with struggling spellers. It is estimated that 75 per cent of words in English take regular spellings, which leaves an infuriating 25 per cent that disobey the rules.

For example, why four, but forty? Or why precede and recede, but supersede?

It is little wonder that some people struggle.

My role as the resident adjudicator on a television channel means the slightest slip-up can cause acute embarrassment (a word, incidentally, that frequently causes people to come to grief.)

Even after 18 years in the job, once the studio lights and camera are upon me, I can find myself suffering a crisis of confidence over how to spell rhythm or weird.

There is no short-cut solution. I can give no better advice than to read widely and voraciously. You will find yourself unconsciously absorbing spellings without having to learn long lists of difficult words by rote.

However, there are some tricks of the trade, and a few useful mnemonics to help with those words that many of us get consistently, hopelessly wrong.

Of course, they work only if you can remember the mnemonic in the first place!

These tricks are also useful for children to master their spelling. Plus they are fun.

Some tricky words that children can learn through mnemonics:

Address

A Directly Delivered letter is Safe and Sound (reminds you of the repeated double consonants).

Aeroplane

All Engines Running Ok (to remember the order of the first four letters).

Arithmetic

A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream.

Argument

A Rude Girl Undresses; My Eyes Need Taping.

Asthma

A Sensitivity To Household Mites Again.

Beautiful

Big Ears Aren’t Usually beautiful (keeps you from muddling the first three vowels).

Because

Big Elephants Can’t Always Use Small Exits (because is commonly misspelt by children).

Chaos

Cyclones, Hurricanes And Other Storms create chaos.

Committee

Many Meetings Take Time - Everyone’s Exhausted! (A quick way of remembering three double consonants).

Desert and Dessert

Remember that the sweet one has two S’s for sugar in it.

Diarrhoea

Dash In A Real Rush - Hurry Or Else Accident.

Draught

An Unpleasant Gale Howling Through draughty rooms.

Eczema

Even Clean ZEalots MAy get eczema.

Embarrass

Do you go Really Red and Smile Shyly when embarrassed? (a reminder of the two double consonants, r and s).

Forty

You know you’re 40 when you start forgetting things, so forget the ‘U’ in four when you spell ‘forty’.

Haemorrhage

Help! Accident, EMergency - Often Ruins Routine Hospital Appointment.

Liaison

Live In An Igloo, son.

Mnemonics

Mnemonics Now Erase Man’s Oldest Nemesis, Insufficient Cerebral Storage.

Necessary

Never Eat Crisps; Eat Salad Sandwiches And Remain Young.

People

Penguins Eat Other Penguin’s Leftovers Eagerly.

Rhythm

Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move (a good guide to a tricky word with a silent ‘h’).

Separate

Remember there’s ‘a rat’ in there.

Wednesday

WE Do Not Eat Soup day.