Revised as of 10 June 2022
If you’re like me, one of the few jingles we were taught as children that I remember was the rule about i before e except after c . . . and have you noticed how useless it is? There are so many exceptions to this rule that you may as well toss it on the rubbish heap.
Spelling correctly was the new status symbol in the eighteenth century, and it carried on through the years with people churning out rhymes to help them remember the various rules. Ah, visions of spelling bees . . .
Per David Crystal’s Spell It Out: The Curious, Enthralling, and Extraordinary Story of English Spelling, this particular jingle entered the classroom during the 19th century after spelling stabilized. – And people were wild to be correct — Hmmm, do you think this was the start of political correctness?
As Crystal notes specifically about the i before e rule, people kept coming up with all sorts of reasons why those words which didn’t follow the rule were exceptions. Only . . . there were so many of them . . . To cover ’em all, you’d need tens . . .
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noir for you from either end.Consider sharing this Word Confusion with friends by tweeting it.
The complete rule is actually:
“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”An alternative ending line is: “And ‘Weird’ is just Weird.”
| I Before E | Rule: The “rule” is i before e, except after c | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I Before E | Except After C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| E Before I | Rule: When it sounds like A, it’s e before i. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| I Before E Even After C | Rule: Then there are the word ending exceptions when c is followed by i and e. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| French (and Other) Exceptions | Rule: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for I Before E Except After C . . . Unless
Apple Dictionary.com
Maddox, Maeve. “I Before, Except After C.” Daily Writing Tips. March 2014. Web. 10 June 2022. <https://www.dailywritingtips.com/i-before-e-except-after-c/>.
Pinterest Photo Credits
A New Year at Michael Anderson Elementary School by Staff Sgt. Michael Means, U.S. Air Force, is in the public domain, courtesy of Fairfield Air Force Base. Blackboard is courtesy of Cliker-Free-Vector-Images and in the public domain via Pixabay.
