I before E

[SayItAll]

I want to know if I am the only one who doesn't like it when people try to bring this up. I before E except after c. There are so many words that don't follow this rule. What about neighbor, weigh, weight, weird, caffeine, height, seize, vein, eight, protein and leisure? I could keep going because the list goes on and on. Why is this something that some people go by when spelling?

[SpiralArchitect]

I want to know if I am the only one who doesn't like it when people try to bring this up. I before E except after c. There are so many words that don't follow this rule. What about neighbor, weigh, weight, weird, caffeine, height, seize, vein, eight, protein and leisure? I could keep going because the list goes on and on. Why is this something that some people go by when spelling?

Is that really a thing because I've never been told something like that? Now, that I think of it there are probably more words which have e before an i. Reign, feign etc.

[ghanashyam]

And you forgot EITHER and NEITHER. Well, English has funny rules about phonetics and spellings. But is BAT, CUT is KAT but PUT is PUT.

I still cannot understand what the P has to do in Pneumonia or Pneumatic. Probably, G.B.Shaw can only answer. He once wrote an essay how the spelling should go along with sounds.

[LauraM]

I want to know if I am the only one who doesn't like it when people try to bring this up. I before E except after c. There are so many words that don't follow this rule. What about neighbor, weigh, weight, weird, caffeine, height, seize, vein, eight, protein and leisure? I could keep going because the list goes on and on. Why is this something that some people go by when spelling?

I agree there are so many exceptions to this rule that it can be confusing and frustrating.  The rule itself is not universally embraced for this very reason.  Some experts go so far as to say it's not worth teaching due to the numerous exceptions.

That said, there are some categories of words that are exceptions.  Whether or not it's worth it to try to remember these categories is, of course another story.

Some exceptions are based on how the word is pronounced.  For example neighbor, weigh, and weight are exceptions because of the vowel sound; it's pronounced AY.

This is a good summary of the exceptions to the rule:

http://www.spelling.org/free/instructional/ie_rule.htm

[thekernel]

It can only serve to further confuse people trying to learn the language. It's not a rule, it's not a guideline, it's practically rubbish. Not worth teaching to children or anyone.

[zambothegreat]

That's something that was taught to me very early on in school, either 1st or 2nd grade. I never payed any mind to it since I was never good with remembering "rules" like that, but it really is an idiotic thing to teach to kids. I wonder how many people it has legitimately helped.

[Dame6089]

I was told this all through grade school. Yet, I somehow never managed to pick up on all the words that break the rule. I think it is still a good rule. You just have to remember that it only applies to the words that have the "ee" sound.

I for one, would never be able to spell receive correctly without that rule.

[calebmelvern]

My grade school teacher used to remind us about this rule all the time. I'm glad it didn't stick with me. If I embraced this rule as much as my teacher wanted me to, I think I never would have picked up a dictionary to check the spelling of certain words.

[SpiralArchitect]

I am surprised how often this rule was taught in schools to you people. I seem to have been underestimating Indian English teaching because we were never taught rules like this.  :grin:

[JessiFox]

It definitely does seem to be the exception to the rule most often, but it seems quite a few of us were taught contrary in school. Not a very good mnemonic if it's so inherently flawed to begin with.

[mccanono]

Well, it's not an absolute rule. It's just a general rule to guide students on how to spell things. I'm sure that the number of words that use this general rule is greater than the other.

[SayItAll]

Thanks LauraM for posting the exceptions!  :grin: My teacher never went over that part of it, don't know why not though. She just kept stressing the I before E and didn't say anything else about it. I find that very interesting.

[SpiralArchitect]

Well, it's not an absolute rule. It's just a general rule to guide students on how to spell things. I'm sure that the number of words that use this general rule is greater than the other.

Ah when there is even confirmation required as to whether there are more things which fit the rule or the exception, one can be sure that the rule is useless.