Mais où est donc Ornicar? Inside France’s strange and memorable school mnemonics

If you step into any French primary school from Paris to Provence, you will find children reciting the same peculiar phrases that sound more like surrealist poetry than forms of academic study.

These are mnemonic phrases (moyens mnémotechniques), mental shortcuts that have helped generations of students to remember specific information and to navigate the rules of grammar.

They are also applied to facts in mathematics, physics, history, science and even religion.

Literally translated, they sound like so much nonsense if you don’t know their purpose.

Memory tools for French grammar, culture and history

French grammar is notoriously difficult, but students are given clever ways to help them conquer it. For example, to remember the coordinating conjunctions you may want to chant along with children: Mais où est donc Ornicar? (But where is Ornicar?).

‘Ornicar’ means nothing. It is just there to complete the phrase which stands for: mais, ou, et, donc, or, ni, car (but, or, and, then, no, because). 

Another aide-mémoire teaches us how to avoid the common ‘if-then’ conditional error: Les -si n'aiment pas les -rais. After si (if), you are not supposed to use the conditional tense. Do say si j'avais (If I had) not si j'aurais.

There are other cribs for spelling. One way to remember how many ‘r’s there are in the verb mourir (to die), is to tell yourself: mourir ne prend qu'un 'r' car on ne meurt qu'une fois (mourir has only one 'r' because we only die once).

Conversely, it is also true that nourrir prend deux 'r' car on se nourrit plusieurs fois (nourrir has two 'r's because you eat many times).

Enough of grammar. You may want to bring to mind the giants of 17th-Century French literature, in which case you need to recite: Perchée sur la racine de la bruyère, la corneille boit l’eau de la fontaine Molière. In this single sentence you have Racine, La Bruyère, Corneille, Boileau, La Fontaine, and Molière.

If you want to remember the fate of Napoleon I and his son, you can quote a simple rhyme: Napoléon est mort à Sainte-Hélène, son fils le roi de Rome est mort à Vienne.

To instantly count off the countries bordering the hexagon of France, all you have to remember is: aime Isabela (love Isabela). The letters stand for Allemagne, Italie, Monaco, Espagne, Suisse, Andorre, Belgique and Luxembourg. (Ignore the repeated letters A, I and E).

In navigation, to distinguish port (left) from starboard (right), the French use the word batterie. Ba (babord/port) is on the left of the word while tri (tribord/starboard) is on the right. (Again, you have to ignore the surplus letters).

To remember the difference between cave formations, you can say to yourself: Les stalactites tombent, les stalagmites montent. The ‘t’ in stalactite stands for tombent (fall), while the ‘m’ in stalagmite stands for montent (rise).

Gazing up at the heavens, you may find yourself forgetting the order of the planets, in which case you need to say aloud: Me voici tout mouillé, je suis un nageur (Here I am all wet, I am a swimmer). The first letters stand for Mercure, Vénus, Terre, Mars, Jupiter, Saturne, Uranus and Neptune.

Religion also has its shorthand. Catholics remember the seven deadly sins with the expression ce galop (this gallop): colère (wrath/anger), envie (envy), gourmandise (gluttony), avarice (greed), luxure (lust), orgueil (pride), paresse (sloth).

Now you are equipped to join in any nostalgic conversation about schooldays, impress your friends with your trivia knowledge, or beat the opposition in a quiz.