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I before E except after C


NATASHA

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Many people get confused by this but it is easy to understand once you have been told how to work it. Words like receive, receipt and conceive are the rule of thumb.

Can you think of words that have I before E and E after I

Lets see what you come up with!

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Most common words always feature the "I before e" rule.  Achieve, belief, chief, and relieve are just some.  Deceive, deceit, conceit, and perceive always fall under the "except after c" rule.  There are words which do not follow the "i before e except after c" rule, such as reinforce, heir, and leisure.  It's pretty easy if you know these rules by heart as well as the words which fall under any of these categories.  If one word falls under one category, it will not be put in any of the others.

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'I' after 'E': albeit, agreeing, height, kaleidoscope, beige, eight, either, weight, reign, reinstall, reinforce, receive, deceive, deity, feisty, rein, etc.

'I' before 'E': pie, piece, field, shield, brief, chief, relief, mischief, niece, shriek, diesel, movie, auntie, charlie, calorie, genie

To be honest, they gave  me headache, but are a great way to stay focused.

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I can't think of many words that don't fit into this rule.  However, this is something I follow almost every day.  I get confused with the spelling of many words.  This rule helps me spell words correctly and remember how to spell them in the future.  Receipt is one of the main words I use on a daily basis that fits into this rule. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow! I didn't know that there is actually a rule on this. I just thought the words are spelled the way they are, and not because they follow a certain rule. Now, I know better.

Thanks. As a lot of the words have been listed, the word that only comes to mind at the moment is 'retrieve'.

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  • 3 months later...

You know you could tell me this one thousand times in a row and I would still manage to misspell certain words.  I think it just comes down to muscle memory more than anything when you are writing so fast or typing so fast, which is usually all I am doing these days with papers and work.  I am certainly not alone there, so I am sure that many other people are having similar issues.  Maybe I should fine some way to rearrange the letters on my keyboard.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I always get this confused and I am a native English speaker! Right now I get it mixed up whenever I want to write words like pierced or pieces. I do not know why! I just stumble over those words and have to use spell check after they get highlighted red underneath. 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I generally stay away from rules like this as English has so many variables you'll start to find more and more exceptions. I see it more as a general trend than a hard and fast rule. Efficience, efficiency etc show that you can have I before E after C.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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