Growing up in Canada, I had to contend with learning two different spellings and pronunciations for words like “schedule”, “colour”, “omelette”, “zed” vs “zee”, “-ise” vs “-ize”, and so on and so forth, so I had to come up with some little tricks to remember how to spell things. Sometimes I’d put on a mental Quebecois or English accent.
Other ones like diarrhea was “Die-err-HEE-uh”, and now that I’m in Australia, it’s most definitely “Die-err-HOE-uh”. 😂
I also recite the ABCs more often than I should. I know a lot of you do, too.
What are some ways that you thought of to help you remember how to spell things? Any language counts.


I can’t believe Australians pronounce “diarrhea” in this way. There is literally no “o!” Are you serious?
As an Australian and sounding it out to myself more than a few times I would say its more die-OH-rhee-ah. But the fuck do I know?
Oh, okay; the original comment put it as “roe,” the penultimate syllable. That was what I found to be bizarre.
Me too which is why I literally sat here saying diarrhoea to myself for 5 minutes straight.