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I ran across someone who said that it was wrong to teach the "i before e except after c" rule, because it was wrong more often that it was right. Is that true? That depends on how the rule is taught. I was taught "i before e except after c and when the sound is ay as in neighbor and weigh and when cie makes a 'she/sheh' sound". I did a search on words containing 'ie' at allwords. I used the concise dictionary results (to save time) and threw out multiple forms of the same word when I encountered them. The search on 'ie' words returned 132 words. Of those words, 120/132 (91%) conformed to the bare 'i before e except after c' rule. The 12 exceptions were: ancient science financier Depending on one's pronunciation, the first 9 exceptions have a 'cie' combination that is pronounced 'sheh/she'. If this exception is taught, the compliance rate becomes 129/132 (97%). The second group of exceptions contains two words in which i and e fall in different syllables. Since this rule is for diphthongs, these are not really exceptions. If one throws them out, one has a compliance rate of 129/130 (99%). The only real exception is 'financier'. I also did a search for 'ei' words. This search returned 47 words, with 9/47 (19%) complying with the bare rule. The 38 exceptions were: beige ageing albeit atheism caffeine counterfeit either weird The first group of 15 exceptions is covered under the �a� sound as in neighbor or weigh exception. When these 15 are added to the initial 9, the group that complies becomes 24/47 (51%). The second group contains exceptions that are not really exceptions, because of the different syllable exemption. When those are removed, we are left with 24/38 (63%). The remaining 14 exceptions are real. When the two searches are combined, we start with a compliance rate of 129/179 (72%). This is pretty good for the bare rule, giving a speller over a 70% chance of being correct. When we throw out the 11 words in which the i and e fall into different syllables, the result becomes 129/168 (76%). If we add the 'sh' exception and the 'a' exception, the compliance rate jumps to 153/168 (91%). It would appear that the 'i before e' rule, when taught properly, is very useful and works approximately 90% of the time. The research was limited, but it tends to support the rule. 13 CommentsLeave a comment | |
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Tapio Vahamaki
February 2, 2004 2:41 PM
I'd like to see mention to the following words:
RECEIVE ... very very very commonly misspelt
BELIEVE ... not as much misspelt but ...
..These two words with: "EIVE" and "IEVE" are BOTH pronounced the SAME.
=====
Then there are other words, like
CABLE and LABEL.... what gives with that ?
My wife has a constant struggle spelling CABLE because she uses a lot of LABEL's, so why not, she just keeps spelling it the "CABEL bill" in the check book (or should that really be the cheque book -- I'm Canadian, eh).
Thanks.
Tap.
Jo
September 11, 2004 12:27 AM
Of the 14 exceptions you mentioned you can drop counterfeit, foreign, forfeit, height, kaleidoscope, leisure, sovereign, and surfeit...since none of them contain the long e sound to which the rule applies.
dream_weaver
September 25, 2004 1:26 PM
It seems that the english language is possibly the most unstructured language on the planet. The problem it seems is, that once a word is used for several years it's eventually accepted into the dictionary as is. Good recent examples may be found in anything relating to the internet, or fashion.
Throw out gramatical structure, make up a word and if it's used enough, it wii become the correct spelling.
So,,, if enough people pay their "cabel" bill, then it WILL eventually become the accepted and correct form. ';-)
Besides,, we haven't even discussed
pro·nun·ci·a·tion (pr-nns-shn)
n.
1. The act or manner of pronouncing words; utterance of speech.
2. A way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood.
3. A graphic representation of the way a word is spoken, using phonetic symbols.
to, too, two
sheeesh!!!
_o_n_n_o_r
September 15, 2005 6:01 AM
i hate the rule i wish i can spell weird, wierd lol(>'')>
Graham
November 3, 2005 6:50 PM
You can add seizure to your list of true exceptions
charlotte
November 13, 2005 5:24 PM
we were taught:
I before E except after C but only when the sound is eee
does that work?
leanne
January 20, 2006 9:36 PM
Financier is only as much an exception as science and society. Otherwise it would be financer.
Wisc Wolf Wisdom
February 5, 2006 1:10 AM
You can also add Poltergeist... It's not an I before e and there's no C in sight!
Nick
April 5, 2006 5:35 AM
I was taught I before E except after C or in sounding like A as in neighbor or weigh with 8 exceptions weird height forgein either neither seize nor forfeit either
Mike
November 11, 2007 2:02 PM
I don't understand! what about field and their, please explain.....
Tim
February 12, 2008 9:21 PM
You left out the rest of the rule:
I before E, except after C,
Or when it sound like 'A', like in Neighbor and Weigh,
Or when it sound like 'Ear', like in the word Weird,
joy
May 30, 2008 10:26 PM
what about CHIEF!
R A Lee
October 5, 2008 3:09 AM
While I enjoyed reading this article, as well as the comments, I started wondering "do the English speaking people not know how to spell, or do we just make a pastime of confounding those who want to pronounce our words correctly"? After all, consider how 'Worcestershire' sounds like Wooster-shure, or, how did Farve (as in Brett) get spelled 'Favre'?
P.S. I actually have a harder time with punctuation, but that's a different story…