Stationary vs. Stationery - Common English Mistakes

Stationary vs. Stationery – The words stationary and stationery often cause confusion among both English learners and native speakers. They’re homophones, which means they have the same pronunciation.

The only difference between these two words is the fact that one is spelt with an “a”, and the other is spelt with an “e” – Yet they both have two entirely different meanings.

In this post, we take a look at the different meanings and example sentences, as well as handy tips to help avoid confusing the two.

Stationary

Stationary is an adjective.

Meaning: Not moving; unchanging in condition

She crashed into a stationary vehicle at the side of the road.
The doctors said that his condition was stationary.

Here are some common stationary collocation sentences from Wordreference.com

stationary traffic [on the highway]
[collided with, crashed into] a stationary vehicle
[remain seated, wait] until the [vehicle, bus, aircraft] is stationary
the traffic is stationary [in the city center, on the highway, around the stadium]
lying stationary [on the ground, in the road]
[hit, aim at, miss] a stationary target
a stationary [price, rate, tariff]
the [price] [is, has become] stationary
[prices] have remained stationary [for six months, since last July]
a stationary [level, amount, volume] (of)
a stationary [source, target, point, reference]

Stationery

Stationery is a noun and an adjective.

Meaning: Writing materials and office supplies

I own a stationery company that focuses mostly on supplying schools.
There’s hardly any stationery left.

Here are some common stationery collocation sentences from Wordreference.com

Noun:

a store that sells stationery
the store sells [school, home, office, business] stationery
the store specializes in stationery
need to order more stationery
stationery and office supplies
stationery for [journaling, scrapbooking]
on [his personal, the company] stationery
print custom stationery
personalized stationery

Adjective:

a stationery [supplier, set, store]
stationery [products, supplies]

Want to make sure you understand the difference between Stationary vs. stationery? Practice making a sentence with these words below in the comments.