I had a bunch of spelling mnemonics drummed into my head as a kid, but I can only remember a couple of them. Most of them have resulted in automatic correct spelling without the mnemonics, through plain old usage. Right now, I recall these offhand:
There is an EEEk ! in cemetery.
There is A RAT in separate.
Gauge is spelled alphabetically, A, E, I, O, U, with A before U. (I made that one up myself.)
Und so weiter.
What bothers me still is in German, ie and ei words are pronounced as in the last letter: ei = "eye" and ie = "eee."
I always found that to be wierd in English. Kinda throws me when I read about a boat pulling into the peir.
And there's a member here whose name I believe is "Heir kommt die Sonne" which should be "Hier kommt die Sonne," I think. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Also, plural for the mouse, the digital graphical user interface (GUI). I had occasion to pack up a bunch of meeses that I intend to repair some day (hah!) and didn't know how to label the box with the plural for mouse. If I had two computers driven by mouses, would it be mice or mouses or meese or GUIs? I suppose I could pull a fast one and say I have a computer with a mouse, and by the way, another computer with a mouse. For the box, I could have labeled it "Bad mouse. Oh, and some more, too."
If there's a Chicago Style Manual item on this, let me know.
Terry, 230RN