Thinking yesterday of the old rule "I before E except after C." That is definitely true. But I was trying to think how many instances there are in the english language of an "EI" coming after "C". Not that many it seems. I came up with 7: receive, conceive, perceive, deceive, receipt, deceit, and conceit. Not that many when you think about it. But enough to keep me occasionally reciting that old rule from childhood.
Might be more exceptions to the rule:
efficiency
scientific
sufficient
conscience
deficiency
proficient
omniscient
And that's not even accounting for plurals that end in "cies".
There are only eight root words in the entire English language spelled C-E-I, vs. eighteen spelled C-I-E. More than twice as many words are spelled with C-I-E and with C-E-I.
And that I Before E part as a general spelling rule is only right about two-thirds of the time. If you rely on that rule, you’ll misspell one out of every three words that contain E-I or I-E.
There is a third part of that old rule, however, which is one-hundred percent correct. It says, “Or When Sounded Like A, As In Vein Or Weigh.” E-I can copy the sound of long A, as in vein or weigh, but I-E can’t.
The eight C-E-I words are: ceiling, conceit, conceive, deceit, deceive, perceive, receipt, and receive.
The eighteen C-I-E words are: ancient, boccie, coefficient, concierge, conscience, deficient, efficient, fancier, financier, glacier, omniscience, prescience, prima facie, proficient, science, sufficient, society, specie.
- https://www.learn-to-read-prince-george....ore-E.html
I was taught "I before E except after C unless the sound is e"
Regardless of the truth of the rule, as a child (and even now) I find it difficult to cast this into any sort of useful logic.
How many ten-year-olds can figger this?
i_before_e = NOT (c_is_preceding_letter) OR (c_is_preceding_letter AND sound_is_ee)
e_before_i = NOT i_before_e
Synes rule looks better
"I before E except after C “Or When Sounded Like A, As In Vein Or Weigh.” E-I can copy the sound of long A, as in vein or weigh, but I-E can’t."
So
i_before_e = NOT (c_is_preceding_letter) OR (sounded_like_an_a)
Locally my a's have a bit of a y quality to them effishyent,scyennce and so forth but it looks much better than the rule I was taught and never understood.;
Or......as sounded as ''a'' as in neighbor and weigh.
But, I always cringe a little when I read weird spelling as wierd. The writer should know better.