In our last article we looked at learning lists, and breaking long lists into sublists.

 

 

Learning lists has 2 major drawbacks :

 

1)      its tedious and

 

2)    if you can’t remember one word, you may not remember all the words that follow it

 

 

 

Mnemonics provide a colourful way of remembering a set of words, and is most useful for learning hooks. 

Mnemonics work best when the letters/phrase in the mnemonic can be connected to the base word.

 

 

 

Take this as an example … what are the hooks to EVE ?

 

A mnemonic might be MaNLY TuRNS. 

 

 

It could be argued that EVE turned Adam (MAN) when she ate the apple in the Garden of Eden. So this mnemonic can, albeit loosely, be

tied to the base word. But what does MaNLY TuRNS mean ?

 

 

The letters MNLY can all precede EVE to make MEVE, NEVE, LEVE and YEVE.

 

The letters TRNS all follow EVE to make EVET, EVER, EVEN and EVES.

 

 

Note that the vowels in MaNLY TuRNS are not used, which is why they have been shown in lower case.

 

 

 

Using mnemonics that don’t connect with the base words, is possible.. but you have to then remember what the base word is !

 

As an example the hooks to AA are BAA, CAA, FAA, MAA, AAH, AAL and AAS.

 

 

The following mnemonic is poor :

 

Buying Cod For Men Has Little Sense

 

 

 

But if you know that AA is a type of volcanic lava from Hawaii then :

 

Be Careful ! Fire, Magma, Hawaiian Lava Splashes

 

 

provides the front hooks (BCFM) and back hooks (HLS).

 

But will you remember which are front and back ?

 

 

 

It is possible to use mnemonics for bonus words too..

 

 

“SNORTED IN A YUMMY PIE”

 

 

The 7 letter word SNORTED combines with the letters of “IN A YUMMY PIE” (I,N,A,Y,U,M,P and E) to make :

 

I – DRONIEST                     N- TENDRONS                                    A-TORNADES

 

Y- DRYSTONE                     U- ROUNDEST, TONSURED, UNSORTED

 

M- MORDENTS                  P- PORTENDS, PROTENDS               E -ERODENTS

 

 

 

The word AGA can have 2 definitions – a Middle Eastern Chief, or a type of cooker.

 

Why not try to come up with a mnemonic to remember the front and back hooks to AGA?

 

(The hooks to AGA appeared in a recent quiz, scroll down to find the letters you need to use in your mnemonic).

 

 

 

Next time we will look at stories.