Stationary vs. Stationery
October 20, 2009 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Jobs
This is one of the most commonly confused words that I see when I’m reading articles online. One means “not moving” and the other means “writing paper and related materials.” So, as I have been, I ask you – do you know which is which?
- I went to the gym to ride a stationary bike.
Remain stationary when you write on your stationery. Image: sxc.hu
- My grandmother gave me a custom stationery set for graduation.
When something is stationary, it is still. When you want to write a letter, you need stationery. This is a fairly easy set of words because there aren’t weird exceptions to the rule.
Most people, myself included, remember the difference by associating the word paper with the word stationery. Pap-er. Station-ery. Get it? That’s easy enough for most people to remember. Another trick: A ray of light is stationary – associate the -ary with ray. There’s no such thing as a rey (-ery) of light.
Have another way to remember which word to use? Leave a comment below!
When I was in grade school, they would show 60’s-era films in grade school (70’s) for these exact lessons. I clearly remember the film that addressed this Stationary v. Stationery comparison: “Think of the soldier that stAnds stationAry, and think of papEr that you buy at the stationEry store.” There was also the comparison of Capital v. Capitol in the same film: “The bAnk has capitAl, the capitOl has a dOme.”
When I was at school, I struggled to remember the difference. Someone then told me that stationery (E) needed a pen and a car (A) was stationary. It’s worked ever since!
I learned “e for envelope” and I still use it!