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The linked 'duplicate' question asked for a 'rule', which usually means something unambiguous that is built into the grammar, and the answer was no. I am specifically asking if anyone can suggest a good aide mémoire to cover most cases, i.e. a 'rule of thumb', which though similarly named, is very different from a rule.

An old question asked if there's a 'rule' for "–ance" vs "–ence", and the answer was no.

Can anyone suggest some kind of mnemonic or reasoning that will help me intuit the correct suffix most of the time, when I don't have access to a spellchecker?

callum
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    This is answered at the other question surely. You have to know Latin. – Andrew Leach Jun 11 '23 at 08:27
  • Here are a few general rules: https://www.really-learn-english.com/english-spelling-rules-ance-or-ence-and-ancy-or-ency.html?utm_content=cmp-true – user 66974 Jun 11 '23 at 09:18
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    I've voted to close this as the linked question "if there's a 'rule' for "–ance" vs "–ence", has been dealt with "and the answer was no." – Greybeard Jun 11 '23 at 10:20
  • @Greybeard, I'm not asking for a grammatical 'rule', but for a mnenomic or a way of remembering it, and you can't reasonably assert that no such thing can exist. Please reconsider. – callum Jun 11 '23 at 10:39
  • What's the difference between a rule and a mnemonic? Not all rules are mnemonics, admittedly, but a valid mnemonic will be a rule. (ROYGBIV doesn't admit exceptions, and "30 days have November..." is fairly comprehensive.) – Stuart F Jun 11 '23 at 12:30
  • 'Rule' could mean a built-in rule of grammar, and it could be valid to say that no such rule exists, so I assumed that's what @Greybeard is thinking of. 'Mnenomic' is just a 'rule of thumb' to remember something, which no one can assert doesn't exist. And there are plenty of mnenomics that have exceptions, such as "I before E except after C". Having to learn a few exceptions is better than having to learn every individual case. – callum Jun 11 '23 at 12:41
  • @callum "I before E except after C" is wrong in the majority of cases. "Rules" are of little use when there are so many exceptions and/or the rules are more difficult to apply than learning the words by rote. As there is no "rule", there can be no mnemonic. – Greybeard Jun 11 '23 at 13:19
  • @Greybeard the longer version does indeed get it right 'most of the time' (which is what I asked) unless you don't consider word commonality. A mnenomic for "-nce" words can exist, I'm sure. I could literally make one up right now, it would probably be lame, but it would exist. Even just a long sentence that contains all the top 10 most common "-nce" words in a memorable little ditty that highlights their endings would be useful. (Mnenomics can be longer than the thing they help you remember, that's not a problem at all.) – callum Jun 12 '23 at 14:09
  • @Greybeard - by the way, the single answer here is a good example of an answer to my question about how to remember a spelling. It's someone helpfully offering a way of thinking about it that could help with remembering common cases. It's not universal or perfect, but it's something. It's helpful. It's what I was asking for. I'd have loved to have got a few more answers like that before you shut my question down. – callum Jun 12 '23 at 14:18

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I don't know of anything that would help you get the right answer "most of the time".

But here's one trick that could help in some cases. Because of how derivatives of verbs are formed in Latin, verbs that either in "-ate" or that have derived nouns in "-ation" should display a tendency to form nouns in "-ance" rather than in "-ence".

Some examples are:

  • variance, variation (from vary)
  • tolerance, tolerate, toleration
  • ordinance, ordination
  • dominance, dominate, domination
  • radiance, radiate, radiation
  • observance, observation (from observe)
  • importance, importation (from import)
herisson
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