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
conscience
deficient
efficient
glacier
omniscient
proficient
species
sufficient
science
society
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
deign
eight
feign
feint
freight
heir
neighbor
reign
rein
surveillance
their
veil
vein
weigh
ageing
albeit
atheism
being
deify
reimburse
reinforce
reinstate
seeing
caffeine
counterfeit
either
foreign
forfeit
height
kaleidoscope
leisure
neither
protein
seize
sovereign
surfeit
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.
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.
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.
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!!!
i hate the rule i wish i can spell weird, wierd lol(>'')>
You can add seizure to your list of true exceptions
we were taught:
I before E except after C but only when the sound is eee
does that work?
Financier is only as much an exception as science and society. Otherwise it would be financer.
You can also add Poltergeist... It's not an I before e and there's no C in sight!
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
thats exactly what my teacher taught me.
I don't understand! what about field and their, please explain.....
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,
what about CHIEF!
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…
I have determined that the English language is much easier to speak than it is to spell. There is a real need for reform (simplification), but it is unlikely to happen.
Why do I say this? I have found that a long time ago Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw both wanted a simplified version of English writing.
Do you know the origin of this rule then?
can we have some EXCEPT AFTER CCCCC WORDS HERE!!!
I think a lot of the problems concerning how complicated the English language is to write, come from the fact that English is the most widely spoken language in the world and therefore, so many foreign words have been absorbed into the English language, with little or no regard for how their spelling conforms to any of these rules. My favourite example of this is the Arabic word 'qibla', which can be easily found in the Oxford English dictionary, but fails miserably to comply with the old faithful "no Q without a U" rule.
Dude...is that u...
I was studying when I found this website. The words 'ie' that follows 'c' were okay, but, I had trouble finding out the correct words for the 'ie' words that don't contain 'c'. I suggest maybe for the 'ie' that don't contain 'c' could be explained a bit better.
Yours truly
Dream-catcher89
piece?
Isn't that i before e?
what about the word receiving
There are in fact 923 exceptions to the rule according to the OED. That is approx. five time more words than those that confirm to the rule (186).
If Canadians were to learn second languages beginning in lower school then most of the difficulties in learning our language (hybrid English) would disappear. Latin and Greek have disappeared from most curricula, but French Spanish,German,and others are base contributors to modern English. If English is difficult for you and you were born in Canada, you may feel free to blame our diluted and weakened educationaal system. North Americans, in their blissful ignorance of things foreign, consider second language to be somehow an affront.
But we see even small children in television broadcasts from foreign countries speaking better English than is spoken here.
sleigh
Reindeer