Former and Latter are ways of discussing two options or things you just mentioned. For example if you say I can’t decide on a turkey or peanut butter sandwich because the former has good protein but the latter goes great with jelly. Turkey is the former and peanut butter is the latter. Former refers to the first of two things and the latter to the second.

It’s not necessarily with only a list of two items. You can say:

“Of corn, rice, eggs, peas, and chicken, I prefer the latter two, over the former three.”

Meaning that you prefer peas and chicken. If you have more than two, you have to be more specific than former or latter.

Former=first, note the common “F”

Latter=last, note the common “L”

For latter, think of the L as Later

Former is the earlier (first) one, latter is the Later one.

former (before)

Former=First

Latter=Last