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Gillian Thompson's avatar

A good way to remember stationary/stationery - stationery includes envelopes, which is spent with an e....

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Ben C.'s avatar

I came here to write pretty much the same thing - except I was going to say "spelled" rather than "spent" 😃

40+ years ago, when this arose in an English lesson, I seem to recall that it was Ian Bedford who chipped in to say:

"𝙖" 𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 "𝙖𝙭𝙡𝙚"

on which a stationary vehicle might sit. And, for that matter, a 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 one 🤷

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Brian Miller's avatar

I was going to say the same about the "e" in stationery. As for the other one, I am past caring about it and have passed the point of no return in learning grammar rules. I know that works for both words, but I have no idea how or why!

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Hoops13's avatar

An envelope of spent ‘E’s?

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Louise's avatar

Stationery is the stuff sold by stationers, everyone knows that...

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James Kinsley's avatar

Stationery is sold by a Stationer.

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Hoops13's avatar

I’ll be checking on 1 Jan 2026 whether you’ve added more testicles or not.

CHECK IT

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Artemisia Wilde's avatar

I’ve never been fussed about alcohol but there’s nothing better than bread, I wouldn’t give it up for anything … well except for that one month when I experimented with paleo, but we all make stupid mistakes sometimes 😂 In truth, the paleo stint did recalibrate my taste buds so I’m really not keen on sugar anymore, but bread is the true love of my life: I posit that there is no food better than fresh homemade bread with butter.

(I’ve been close friends with my sons’ dad for 17 years now, can’t get my head around the fact we’re not sick of each other by now! Though being separated for the last 4 years has probably helped, I’m hard work to live with! It’s great that you guys are still going strong and I’ve no doubt you’ll be rocking it until the end).

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