Stationary vs. Stationery
- Stationary is an adjective that describes something that isn't moving.
- Stationery is a noun that refers to writing material like paper and envelopes.
Here's one way to remember it: when you stay, you're stationary.
P.S. Remember the good ol' days, when people used to write letters? Nope, neither do we. But they would've written those letters on stationery!
Examples
Eliza ends every workout with forty-five minutes on the stationary bike.
The scenery may be awful, but a stationary bike is a great way to get fit in terrible weather (or a pandemic). Stationary is the right word for the job in this sentence because it's describing a bike that's not going anywhere.
Clint remained stationary until the spider scuttled out of the room.
Since Clint is paralyzed by fear, stationary is the correct word in this creepy-crawly sentence.
Faith refuses to embrace email and still sends all of her correspondence on personalized stationery.
How quaint and time-consuming! In this sentence we're talking about Faith's fancy writing materials, so stationery is the way to go.
Common Mistakes using Homophones
- Affect vs. Effect
- Compliment vs. Complement
- Past vs Passed
- Illusion vs Allusion
- Weather vs Whether
- Presence vs Presents
- Site vs Sight vs Cite
- Principle vs Principal
- Stationary vs Stationery
- Whole vs Hole
- Accept vs Except
- Already vs All Ready
- Elicit vs Illicit
- Altogether vs All Together
- Breath vs Breathe
- Costumes vs Customs
- Advice vs Advise
- Lose vs Loose
- Definitely vs Defiantly
- Desert vs Dessert
- Through vs Threw
- Assure vs Ensure vs Insure