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StationEry, StationAry - two words, different meanings

Lots of people have trouble spelling this one - there are two words which look the same, except one ends with -ery and the other ends with -ary.  "How to tell them apart?" I hear you ask. 

Spelling is so important! I admit that I have been put off if I visit a website and I start to read and discover lots of spelling mistakes and grammar errors. I used to write to the webmaster for each site and let them know - now there aren't enough hours in the day for me to do that :-)

Here is a very commonly misspelt word - misused every day by millions of people (do I exaggerate?), but is *so* simple to learn the correct way to spell it.

Stationery

where the E in -ery is for Envelope.

Use this spelling when talking about paper, pens, envelopes, etc. 

Stationary

where the A in -ary is for Apple,which sits still, and is not moving so therefore use stationAry.

Use this "stationAry" when talking about vehicles and other objects when you mean they are standing still.

Example:

* The stationery truck [carrying all the pens & paper] was stuck in traffic - it was stationary [sitting still].

* The stationary train was waiting at the platform. [It was standing still.]

* The stationery cupboard was looking bare - the Receptionist decided it was time to order more notepads, pencils and other office supplies. PS: Because the cupboard didn't have wheels, it was *stationary*! 

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• February 1, 2008, 3:22 am - Lee Kear

  Hi, Love your site.

  I'm a full time writer who occasionally finds his mind going completely blank on the proper use of punctuation. My overuse of the humble comma is practically criminal. I thought you might like to add this to your Stationery, Stationary page:

  Before paper and printing (in England) there were very few shops. Outside of the big cities everything was sold by peddlers and travelers who brought goods by cart and on foot to rural villages. Back then to buy in bulk and sell small amounts from a shop, what we call retail, was considered an evil way to profit from people. Paper changed all that.

  Paper, being too delicate to carry far and too expensive to buy much of, wasn’t something a traveling seller would stock. And so it was sold by a new kind of vendor who stayed in one place: a stationer, who was stationary. If you wanted it then you came to him. Soon other shops sprang up close by, turning villages into towns as the years went by.

  Thanks Lee! Great story about stationery/stationary!

  Thanks so much for sharing this with me and my readers, I love snippets from history especially when it's to do with grammar, punctuation and spelling - well, words to be exact. :-)

  And please Lee, cut down on your apostrophe use, you don't want to run out of them ... do you?

  Cheers
  Teena
  Sydney, Australia