What rhymes does your language have to remember things with?

14 comments

1. (Somewhat old) Italian rhyme to remember how many days are on the calendar months:

   *Trenta dì conta Novembre*
   *Con April, Giugno e Settembre*
   *Di ventotto ce n’è uno*
   *Tutti gli altri ne han trentuno*

   (November has 30 days / with April, June and September / Only one has 28 / All the others have 31)

2. A mnemonic from XIX century to remember the words that use ‘yat’ to signify the sound ‘e’

   Бѣлый, блѣдный, бѣдный бѣсъ
   Убѣжалъ голодный въ лѣсъ.
   Лѣшимъ по лѣсу онъ бѣгалъ,
   Рѣдькой съ хрѣномъ пообѣдалъ
   И за горькій тотъ обѣдъ
   Далъ обѣтъ надѣлать бѣдъ.

   Вѣдай, братъ, что клѣть и клѣтка,
   Рѣшето, рѣшетка, сѣтка,
   Вѣжа и желѣзо съ ять —
   Такъ и надобно писать.

   Наши вѣки и рѣсницы
   Защищаютъ глазъ зѣницы,
   Вѣки жмуритъ цѣлый вѣкъ
   Ночью каждый человѣкъ…

   Вѣтеръ вѣтки поломалъ,
   Нѣмецъ вѣники связалъ,
   Свѣсилъ вѣрно при промѣнѣ,
   За двѣ гривны продалъ въ Вѣнѣ.

   Днѣпръ и Днѣстръ, какъ всѣмъ извѣстно,
   Двѣ рѣки въ сосѣдствѣ тѣсномъ,
   Дѣлитъ области ихъ Бугъ,
   Рѣжетъ съ сѣвера на югъ.

   Кто тамъ гнѣвно свирѣпѣетъ?
   Крѣпко сѣтовать такъ смѣетъ?
   Надо мирно споръ рѣшить
   И другъ друга убѣдить…

   Птичьи гнѣзда грѣхъ зорить,
   Грѣхъ напрасно хлѣбъ сорить,
   Надъ калѣкой грѣхъ смѣяться,
   Надъ увѣчнымъ издѣваться.

3. Two Swedish comedians that have had a pod that answers listeners questions, searches for a good Swedish term for that. I don’t remember the best they or the listners have come up with. It was called *Så funkar det* when it was in radio now it’s *Fråga Anders och Måns****.***

4. One common mistake for native speakers of Spanish is messing with the other of the direct and indirect object pronouns when the latter is “se”.

   For instance “Se me ha olvidado tu nombre” many people would say “Me se ha olvidado tu nombre” Note the order change in the aforementioned pronouns.

   In order to avoid this mistake, at school we’re taught the phrase “las semanas antes que los meses” because “las SEmanas antes (before) que los MEses” Thus, SE before ME

5. The one that instantly popped in my head is

   “I before E, except after C”, for remembering where each of they letters go where they’re together in a word, I wouldn’t know how to spell received if it wasn’t for this rule!

   And we also use righty tighty!

6. “1143 quem não sabe esta data não é bom português” (1143 who doesn’t know this date is not a good Portuguese) it’s the year Portugal was founded

7. “Pamietaj chemiku młody, wlewaj zawsze kwas do wody” from a chemistry class. It means “remember young chemist, always pour acid into water”.

   Młody (young) and wody (water, genetive case) make the rhyme in this case.

8. There’s a very simple one “Nooit op zondag werken”, literally “Never on sunday work”. You can use the first letter of each word to fit the four directions in clockwise fashion (Noord Oost Zuid West)

9. More Russian grammar mnemonics, this time it is the list of verbs to conjugate as type 2 conjugation

   Ко второму же спряженью Отнесем мы без сомненья Все глаголы, что на -ить, Исключая: брить, стелить, Гнать, держать, дышать, обидеть, Видеть, слышать, ненавидеть, А еще вертеть, терпеть, И зависеть, и смотреть.

10. As children we used to say: *Wer nämlich mit h schreibt ist dämlich.* – Those who spell *nämlich* with an h are stupid. Apparently that was a common mistake.

    And in English class we learned: *He, she, it, das s muss mit*. To remember that the third person singular needs an s at the end of the verb.

11. One that always got me at being something super representative of how great our grammar can be, is:

    “Kto kreskuje -uje,
    otrzymuje dwóje”.

    Which translates to:

    “Who writes -uje with ó,
    only gets bad grades” (dwóje means 2s, second worst grade you can get).

    U and Ó are pronounced the same, so this little mnemonic aims to help with knowing which one to use. But it has a god damned exception within it, as it’s dwóje not dwuje, which just shows you as a child that it’s not gonna be an easy ride trying to learn how to spell lol

12. The first rhyme that comes to mind is for the clause elements in grammar.

    Here is one song/rhyme from “Funktionell svensk grammatik” via http://talrik.bloggo.nu/Ramsa-om-ordklasserna/. I only remembered the first three.

    > Substantiv är namn på ting, såsom apa, boll och sting (nouns are names of things, like monkey, ball and sting)
    >
    > Adjektiven sen oss lär hurdana tingen är, glada, snälla, rara så som vi ska vara (the adjectives then teaches us how the things are: happy, kind, sweet, like we’re supposed to be)
    >
    > Verb är sånt som man kan göra känna, kramas, se och röra (verbs are stuff you can do, feel, hug, see and touch)
    >
    > Räkneord som ett, två, tre det är nåt att räkna mé (counting words like one, two, three, they are something to count on)
    >
    > Pronomen som den och det används för det man ändå vet (pronouns like this or that is used for that you already know)
    >
    > Prepositioner före substantiven står. Det blir till jul, vid påsk eller i vår. (prepositions stand before nouns. It’s by christmas, for easter or in spring)
    >
    > Adverben används lätt för rum, tid och sätt. (the adverbs are easily used for space, time and manner)
    >
    > Konjunktioner som och, men, för och då kan göra meningar så långa så. (conjunctions like and, but, for and then can make sentences so long)
    >
    > Interjektioner säger vad vi känner när det värker, svider och bränner. (interjections says what we feel when it aches, stings and burns)
    >

13. *Viideltä saunaan ja kuudelta putkaan*

    *Se on sellainen työmiehen lauantai*

    At 5 o’clock to sauna and at 6 o’clock to the drunk tank. That’s a workman’s Saturday.

14. >*Minden csap és minden zár,*
    >
    >*Balra nyit és jobbra zár.*

    In English:

    >Every tap and every lock,
    >
    >To the left they open, to the right they lock.

    It can be translated to rhyme in English as well but it doesn’t have that nice rhythm to it.