Old School Grammar Tricks

By Joan Whetzel

When youngsters and non-native speakers first learn to read and write English, there are many tricky details that can trip them up. The ways to teach these points has changed along the way. What I suggest is a return to the old school approach to teaching a few of them.

I Before E

Teachers like to use the “Receive a piece of pie” example for teaching the ie rule. The old school uses a poem to teach it instead. This is the original poem, as I learned it in school.

                        i before e, except after c

                        or when sounding like a

                        as in neighbor and weigh.

 Another version reads:

                        When the sound is ee

                        It’s i before e except after c.

 And yet another version says:

                        i before e, except after c

                        Drop this rule when -c­ sound as -sh

 Here the rule says to use  i before  e, except under certain circumstances. The exceptions to the rule, says to  use “ei” instead when the letter combination sound like Ā or ee, or when following a c that sounds like sh. The only other exception  is when pluralizing a word ending in -cy, which changes the suffix to -cies.

Commonly Misspelled Words

Some errors occur with words that sound alike. Some of these words (affect and effect) don’t even belong to the same parts of speech (nouns vs. verbs). Here are some of the old school recommendations for remembering the correct usage of these words.

·         Their, they’re, there: Their is the possessive of they or them, meaning something that belongs to them. They’re is a contraction of “they are.” There indicates a directions or a place where something is located.

·         Principal / principle: A principle is a rule, code, or tenet. The principal is in charge of the school and can best be remembered with the following principle: “The principal is your pal.”

·         Affect / effect: Use the mnemonic RAVEN to help you remember the difference: 

Affect, Verb, Effect, Noun. Affect is a verb, it takes action: antibiotics affect an infection; cooking affects food;   the baby’s crying affected the restaurant patrons. Effect is a noun, it’s preceded by the article the : the baby’s crying had a negative effect on the restaurant patrons; the infection was effected by the antibiotic; cooking the food had the effects of changing the food’s flavor and consistency.

Use Double-S or Single-S with Mis- and Dis- Words

Another common problem is whether to use the on s or to following the prefixes mis- and dis-. One simple old school rule for remembering this is to remove the prefix from the root word. If the root word starts with s, then make it a double s; but if the root word does not start with s, then use a single s. Double S Examples: mis-spelled, misspent, misspeak, misshape dissuade, dissemble, dissection, and dissolve. Single S examples: disorderly, discard, disfavor, disarm, misinform, mishandle, misdirect, and misdiagnose.

These are only a few examples of the problems and their correct usage. There are new ways to teach these same grammar rules, but the older ways are still valid.