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    design_rules!
    Nov 24, 2020

    I before E except after C... busted!!

    in General Discussion

    The post by @vibgyor71 on #readitoutloud inspired me to write this. I wanted to use the word "foreign" and wrote foriegn. Of course it gave a red squiggly below. So I recited the rhyme - "I before E except after C"... and realized the rhyme not only did not hold good here, there were plenty anomalies to it!


    The rhyme with the title above- "I before E except after C" is a well known rhyme. It means, when we spell words, when there are words where the alphabets "i" and "e" are used together, the i precedes the e, except if the alphabet before that is a c!

    For example : achieve, field, cashier, grief, relieve..... and for the words preceded by C we have : ceiling, deceit, inconceivable, perceive....


    However, this is not a steady rule... what about foreign, beige, feign, height, vein...

    So clearly, this needs more thinking...just thought I'd put the thought out there.

    Also, while scouring the web for some clarity, I found this funny poem on the Webster Dictionary online .


    I before e, except after c

    Or when sounded as 'a' as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh'

    Unless the 'c' is part of a 'sh' sound as in 'glacier'

    Or it appears in comparatives and superlatives like 'fancier'

    And also except when the vowels are sounded as 'e' as in 'seize'

    Or 'i' as in 'height'

    Or also in '-ing' inflections ending in '-e' as in 'cueing'

    Or in compound words as in 'albeit'

    Or occasionally in technical words with strong etymological links to their parent languages as in 'cuneiform'

    Or in other numerous and random exceptions such as 'science', 'forfeit', and 'weird'.





    2 comments
    2 Comments
    A
    arakalic
    Dec 03, 2020

    The rhymes on English spelling reminded me of a couple of spelling rhymes from my childhood.Here they are:

    Q and U stick like glue

    Now here is the rule

    You know it is true

    If you start a word with Q

    Make sure you follow with U


    E goes away when ing comes to stay/play

    Example:coming, liking, loving etc


    Like

    Q
    QVW Desk
    Nov 24, 2020

    Thank you for the lovely post and the rather interesting and highly explanatory poem, someone sure went to a lot of trouble to create that!

    We love that @design_rules! has mentioned this poem was found on the Webster dictionary online and it was not an original poem.

    However, for future reference, please share the URL with the original post / share.

    We are producing it here this time.



    www.merriam-webster.com
    I Before E Except After C
    The famous rhyme is wrong. Here's why.

    Keep the creative juices flowing...

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