Grammar Mnemonics

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the ways we learn grammar and sentence skills.

Not all elementary schools emphasize the basics, which is a shame. I count myself lucky to have had my second-grade nun drill us in grammar.

In fact, I once challenged the nun about state-of-being verbs: If verbs are action words, then state-of-being words, in which the subject just is or seems without actually doing anything, can’t be verbs. The fact that many state-of-being verbs are also helping verbs placated me a bit.

Below are some spelling and grammar mnemonics that have assisted me along the way, some even as long ago as second grade. Mnemonics are memory tricks such as acronyms, phrases, or poems that help a person learn a concept. Here are mine:

FANBOYS: This acronym reminds us of the basic conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
Countable nouns: Nouns that are countable, meaning you have more than one of them, should be preceded by articles such as “a,” “an,” or “the” when they are singular: a dog/dogs; the store/stores; an aardvark/aardvarks. Nouns that are not countable, meaning you cannot count them, do not get articles or plural constructions: information, lettuce (although you can have one or many heads of lettuce), weather.
S.V.O: This stands for English sentence order: subject + verb + object. I actually prefer this: S.V.CT, which is subject + verb + complete thought. Sometimes, you don’t need an object, but you always need a complete thought. The phrase “Go” has the understood subject “you” with the imperative verb “go,” which is a complete thought.
“A cat has claws at the end of its paws. A comma’s a pause at the end of a clause‎”: For example, “In the beginning [dependent clause], I was skeptical of state-of-being verbs.” I’m not the biggest fan of this mnemonic because students do not always understand what a clause is, whether dependent or independent, but it’s a good start to learning commas. See hint number 3 here for more-specific comma guidance using COMMA as a mnemonic.
“When two vowels go walking, often the first does the talking”: Examples include “loan” (long o and no a sound), “read” (long e and no a sound), and “gain” (long a and no i sound).
Silent e: Remember “Silent E” in The Electric Company? Tom Lehrer’s brilliant song reveals how the magician Silent E adds an “e” to words to change the original short vowel to a long vowel, thus transforming the entire sound and meaning of the word: pan to pane, hug to huge, cap to cape.
Parts of speech: While researching grammar mnemonics, I found two great poems on parts of speech:
- https://www.vedantu.com/poems/parts-of-speech
- https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/parts-speech

Of course, these guidelines all have exceptions. Many of us know this mnemonic:

I before e,
Except after c,
Or when sounded as "a,"
As in neighbor and weigh

However, I love this exception verse, from the Language Nerds, even more:

I before e, except when your neighbor Keith receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters. Weird.

Misplaced Modifiers: My Favorite