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i before e except after c....
Mar. 18th, 2013 08:44 pmThanks to wikipedia for the list of exceptions. :)
There's a fairly well-known mnemonic for English spelling that says, "i before e except after c, except when sounding like 'a' as in neighbor or weigh." But there are quite a few words that don't fit that mold. Some are weird exceptions, like when you do a sleight-of-hand trick or sleep in an eiderdown bed. Proper nouns, such as Keith or Keisha, don't fit the rule either. Neither do chemical names, such as caffeine, casein, codeine, and protein. And your Rottweiler puppy breaks the rule, as do seismographs that measure earthquakes. Atheists also don't follow the rule, and some words break the rule completely, such as eigenfrequencies, obeisancies and oneiromancies. Perhaps more scientific evidence is needed before we can declare the mnemonic all-encompassing, but in the meantime a dictionary is probably your best bet.
There's a fairly well-known mnemonic for English spelling that says, "i before e except after c, except when sounding like 'a' as in neighbor or weigh." But there are quite a few words that don't fit that mold. Some are weird exceptions, like when you do a sleight-of-hand trick or sleep in an eiderdown bed. Proper nouns, such as Keith or Keisha, don't fit the rule either. Neither do chemical names, such as caffeine, casein, codeine, and protein. And your Rottweiler puppy breaks the rule, as do seismographs that measure earthquakes. Atheists also don't follow the rule, and some words break the rule completely, such as eigenfrequencies, obeisancies and oneiromancies. Perhaps more scientific evidence is needed before we can declare the mnemonic all-encompassing, but in the meantime a dictionary is probably your best bet.
