Grammar Poetry -- oh, come back here, you cowards!

[Saucy_Sage]

So a friend of mine is pulling her hair out because her kid can't learn when to use "it's" and "its."

"Isn't there a poem?" she asks.

"A poem?"

The skepticism in my voice is no deterrent. "You know," she gushes, "like 'i before e,' that kind of thing."

"Not that I, um, know of."

"Well, you're a writer. Can't you write one?"



Anyway, here's what I came up with:

An apostrophe's needed when "it's" is "it is,"
But when it's possessive, it's "its" -- just like "his."​

and

Wow! It's tits!
Gross! Its tits.​

I know. They suck. Is there a real rhyme that I just don't know? Or does anyone have something better?

Thanks,

SS

 

[glynndah]

No rhyme that I know of. I just remember that "its" is a possessive pronoun and none of those (his, hers, ours, yours, theirs {be careful with those last two}) needs an apostrophe.

Not much help, is it?

 

[Handley_Page]

Now you've got me worried. . . . .

 

[champagne1982]

When a pronoun owns a thing
It needs no apostrophe,
But when it is pointing at a thing
It's a contraction. You see?

 

[oggbashan]

Mnemonics

Rhymes and Catch Phrases
The following rhyming phrase helps people to remember how to spell such difficult words as receive.

I before E, except after C.
Unfortunately this rule does not always apply. One common exception is the word weird, which has prompted some people to use the extended version of this mnemonic:


I before E, except after C.
And "weird" is just weird.
Sadly there are many, many more exceptions. Nevertheless this remains a very popular memory aid for spelling. The following adaptation is somewhat better:


I before E, except after C.
Or when sounded "A" as in neighbor and weigh.
Just don't rely on this one for spelling words like weir and seize!

The following mnemonic is used by pilots. If temperature or pressure drops, you will be lower (in altitude) than the aircraft's instruments suggest if they are left uncorrected. On the other hand, a rise in temperature or pressure will result in the opposite effect.


High to Low; look out below.
Low to High; clear blue sky.
This is somewhat reminiscent of these popular rhymes which guide people on what kind of weather red skies and rainbows generally herald depending on the time of day at which they are seen.


Red sky at night: shepherd's delight.
Red sky in the morning: shepherd's warning.
Rainbow in the morning: travellers take warning.
Rainbow at night: travellers' delight.

Rainbows indicate humid air. A morning rainbow is seen in the West – the direction from which storms generally come – and so often appears before bad weather. Evening rainbows, which appear in the East, usually indicate the passing of stormy weather.


Spelling Acronyms
The following mnemonics are sentences or phrases in which the initial letters of the words spell out a word which many people find rather tricky to spell.

BECAUSE
Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants
ARITHMETIC
A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream

GEOGRAPHY
General Eisenhower's Oldest Girl Rode A Pony Home Yesterday

RHYTHM
Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move

NECESSARY
Not Every Cat Eats Sardines (Some Are Really Yummy)

ARGUMENT
A Rude Girl Undresses; My Eyes Need Taping!

OCEAN
Only Cats' Eyes Are Narrow


And a neat way to remember how to spell POTASSIUM: just remember one tea, two sugars. You can use a similar aide memoire to prevent confusion between DESERTS (like the Sahara) and DESSERTS (like Tiramisu) by remembering that the sweet one has two sugars.


List Order Acronyms
This is certainly one of the most popular mnemonic techniques.

Order of colours in the rainbow, or visual spectrum:
(Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet)
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.
Order of taxonomy in biology:
(Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach.

Order of geological time periods:
(Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent)
Cows Often Sit Down Carefully. Perhaps Their Joints Creak?
Persistent Early Oiling Might Prevent Painful Rheumatism.

Order of Mohs hardness scale, from 1 to 10:
(Talc, Gypsum, Calcite, Fluorite, Apatite, Orthoclase feldspar, Quartz, Topaz, Corundum, Diamond)
Toronto Girls Can Flirt, And Other Queer Things Can Do.

The order of sharps in music, called the "circle of fifths":
(F, C, G, D, A, E, B)
Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.
And in reverse for flat keys the mnemonic can be neatly reversed:
Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father.

The notes represented by the lines on the treble clef stave (bottom to top):
(E, G, B, D, F)
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.
And the notes represented by the spaces between the lines:
(F, A, C, E)
Furry Animals Cook Excellently. Or just the word FACE

The notes represented by the lines on the bass clef stave (bottom to top):
(G, B, D, F, A)
Good Boys Do Fine, Always.
And the notes represented by the spaces between the lines:
(A, C, E, G)
All Cows Eat Grass.

The order of planets in average distance from the Sun:
(Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)
My Very Easy Method: Just Set Up Nine Planets.

 

[YoursSINSerely]

My God, Og man! Where DO you keep all of that stuff?

I'm very impressed. Some, I knew. Some, I'd forgotten that I knew. Some, are different depending upon where you grew up. Some, I had never heard before and I still don't know what you are talking about. LOL.

Nonetheless, it was fun to read and thanks for spelling it all out.

 

[Handley_Page]

I didn't know hardness was in Mhos.
I do know that conductance is (inverse of resistance)

 

[Guest]

King Og! I am saving your lists - wonderful!

I would add one to the order of sharps in music?

I teach this to my students and they never forget.

Fat Cats Get Drunk After Eight Beers

 

[Boxlicker101]

As for "It's" and "its" I just remember that the first is a contraction, and they ALWAYS take an apostrophe. The second is a possessive, and they NEVER take an apostrophe.

 

[slyc_willie]

Order of colours in the rainbow, or visual spectrum:
(Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet)
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.

Brilliant schemes, Og, but for this one, I've always remembered: Roy G. Biv.

(I seem to remember a DC comics supervillain who had powers related to the spectrum of colors, whose name was Roy G. Bivolo.)

As for the original question, how about keeping it simple:

"It's not its poem."

 

[Saucy_Sage]

And when you're staring at the crescent or quarter moon one night, remember one word:

dewaxing​

If the moon looks like a "D," it's(!) waxing and will soon be full. If it's a "C," it's waning. C ya, Mr. Moon!

 

[glynndah]

Concerning Og's post:

NPR recently featured a little story saying that schools would no longer be encouraged to teach the "i before c" rule because there are so many exceptions to it.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

As long as we're doing mnemonics...

The four kinds of variables in social research are Interval, Ratio, Ordinal, and Nominal, or "IRON."

And the carpal bones, read in the right direction, can be remembered as "Some Lovers Try Positions That They Can't Handle." Get an osteological atlas and check it out, if you're interested...

 

[oggbashan]

My God, Og man! Where DO you keep all of that stuff?

...

Wikipedia is the source. I looked for mnemonics (and I could spell it )

Og

 

[Huckleman2000]

King Phillip Cried "Oh For Goodness Sakes!"
Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species