i Before e Except After c?
I was trying to teach my seven year old how to spell some words, when I came to an ie word, and hauled out the old “i before e” mantra. But hold on – what about height? Or weird? or science? Looking into it a little more, it’s an appallingly bad rule. I mean it obviously doesn’t apply to:
- Weighing ancient glaciers
- Seized counterfeit protein
- Forfeited beige receipts
- Feisty freight fanciers
- Cueing canoeing concierge
- Efficient leisure society
- Codeine caffeine steins
- Neither either neighbour
- Foreign sovereign reigns
- Reinforced seismic sleighs
- Heist feint sleight
- Eight heifer species
- Albeit abseil surveillance
- Weird science heights
With so many exceptions, it makes you wonder why anyone bothers with the i before e rule at all?
And when my son was trying to figure out how to pronounce the word – he didn’t have a hope. Have you ever noticed how many different ways ei or ie is pronounced?
“A” – weigh, eight
“EE” (long e) – seize, protein
“E” (short e) – heifer, efficient
“EAR” – weird
“II” (long i) – science
“I” (short i) – counterfeit
“EE ER” – concierge, fancier
So, with each different pronunciation of “ie” and “ei” I give you the following:
I before E, except after C, unless eight weird concierges seize counterfeit heifer science.
So much respect to anyone learning English as a second language.