Stationery Versus Stationary and Why I Give a Crap

I’m part of a Facebook group which has more than 100k members. Naturally, in a group this large, one which is not geographically specific, the members come from all areas of the globe. Last week a member of the group posted a tip that she uses to remember the difference between the words stationAry and stationEry.

The responses to this comment were many and varied, ranging from thanking her for the tip, to those who have never identified that the word has two meanings and not knowing that there were two different ways to spell it, to a tempest of other word clarifications people had up their sleeve. One person, I think they may have been a non-native English speaker, made the point that they cannot understand why people are so sensitive about, and feel affronted whenever someone corrects their grammar. As they pointed out, it is after all, how we learn.

And some may wonder why anyone cares. Well, I care, because I like words and I'm a self appointed champion for correct English. Others may like to care because, as much as we may try to kid ourselves that this is not the case, the simple fact is that when you are only able to make your impression in writing, as much of the world is these days, we are represented by our ability to do it properly. If you don't know the difference between, 'I'd like to have Japanese for dinner,' and, 'I ate too many dumplings,' then you immediately leave an impression. That impression will vary of course. Some will just think you're lazy; others, that English isn't your strong suit; but there will be plenty who will think you are ignorant or uneducated. If you're writing a comment on a Facebook page about how your cousins new puppy is 'to' (too) cute, this probably doesn't matter. If you're advertising a product you're trying to sell for your business and say 'to many of the experts have no idea what they're talking about', maybe it does.

Being the geeky logophile, (a lover of words), that I am, I jumped straight into this thread and read all of the 186 comments, (there were also 1.5k likes), and added a few of my own. One of my comments was my tip for remembering the difference between the two words.

This thread lead me realise that I LOVE this topic and gave me an idea to share my tip on my own blog, and that idea led me to a realisation, which in hindsight, I’m surprised I didn’t come to earlier. That my love of words is one of the things that takes up quite a large bit of my brain, and which I enjoy writing, talking, thinking, learning and knowing about. My struggle to take writing my blog, my Steemit one and the my WordPress one, That Bit Of My Brain, into a real passion has always been my inability to find a common thread to tie it together. Okay there is also a 6yo and my BA and life and a lot of health issues too that leave me without much time, but the common thread was also a problem. That thread is words. Okay, maybe words and learning. And writing. And reading. Oh and thinking about all of the above.

So to kick off the slight adjustment in direction which my writing is taking, I will share the two tips for remembering the difference between stationary and stationery, my own, and the one shared by the member of my group, Karen.

These are the two words we are wanting to clarify:

stationary (adjective) – not moving; and
stationery (noun) – material objects, pens, paper, envelopes, ink, used for writing

My Tip:

You can remember that the word for the material object definition includes an ‘e’ by remembering that the word ‘envelope’, an item of stationery, starts with an E.

Karen’s Tip:

You can also remember the difference between the two words by remembering that the word ‘paper’ is spelled papER, which correlates with the word ‘stationERy’.

Both useful tips, however my objective opinion is that ‘E for Envelope’ is the easier trigger for your brain.

Thanks as always for stopping by and I hope you found this tip helpful, and that you’ll enjoy the direction I’m planning to go with this and come back soon.

My daily code – have a great day, don’t be an arsehat, teach someone something and find something new to learn.

See ya,

Brooke