Stationary vs Stationery

StationeryHomophones cause all sorts of problems and love nothing more than to trip writers up. If you are scratching your head right now, homophones are those words that are pronounced the same, but mean different things. The English language is full of the little blighters.

Case in point: Stationary and Stationery.
One word is spelled with an “a” and the other one is spelled with an “e”. So what’s the difference?

Stationery

Stationery, with an “e,” is paper, usually paper that you use for writing letters or notes.

We spent ages looking for the most suitable wedding stationery.

A good way to remember this is by thinking about “e” for “envelope”.

Stationary

Stationary means not moving, fixed in one place, still.

The dog had a habit of barking at stationary cars.

You can remember the spelling of this word by thinking that  when you are stationary, you are often standing.

Hope it helps! 🙂

 

 

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