Boots.

So, as I'm studying for my Spanish midterm exam, I can't help but notice how much I rely on little mnemonic devices (which I learned about in Psychology, yay!) to learn and remember. And I also cannot help but notice how much these little tricks really get me off task.

Take, for example... Boots.

In conjugating Spanish verbs in certain tenses, there is a pattern among the yo, tu, el/ella/Ud, and ellos/ellas/Uds forms. Apparently it looks like a boot? But not really. I think it looks more like Louisiana, which I don't think looks like a boot at all... But whether I think it looks like a boot or not doesn't really matter, because Senora Ortiz says so. And whatever Senora Ortiz says, goes!

I personally think it looks more like a 'L'.

There are also sandal verbs, for el/ella/Ud, and ellos/ellas/Uds. Why are all these tenses named after shoes?! Anyway... I forgot what I was going to even say.

I guess mnemonic devices are useful on tests, but they can be kind of distracting if you think about them in depth.