“I” before “E” except after “C”. Or apparently, any other bloody time some word doesn’t want to follow the rules!
People are lazy. We make a cute sounding rule to help us remember how to spell – and as it turns out we don’t even bother quoting the *ENTIRE* rule when we pass it along.
- Rule
Write I before E
Except after C
Or when it sounds like an A
As in “neighbor” and “weigh”
Hey, that’s much better! That spells it all out. Right? Wrong.
- Use “I” before “E” after “C” if it carries an “sh” sound (e.g., deficient).
- Use “E” before “I” with words with long “ain” sound (e.g., feign, reign).
Now we’ve got it covered! Right? Wrong.
- Five exceptions: caffeine, leisure, protein, seize, weird
And we get mad when immigrants don’t learn English.