I Before E
except after C.
Uh-Huh.
I say this to myself EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I write …
! ugh !!
EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
& I kinda, sorta really pride myself in spelling, I do, as way, waaaaaay before spell-check came to be, yeah. #myfavoritesubjectinschoolforsure.
So what is it about this one, specific word, I often ask my brain. WHAT ??!?? I mean, I don’t obsess about it or any of that biz, but when the next time rolls around and the nextnextnext and I keep making the same silly mistake ?? yep, I’m guessing, maybe I do.
gaaaa.
So after stumbling across this randomness as I was recently not obsessing-obsessing …
I decided Google needed another visit from this inquiring mind, and into a rabbit hole, I tumbled…
i before e except after c
or when sounded as ‘a’ as in neighbor and weigh
Exception to “I Before E” Rule
Nice try, but it’s still full of exceptions. To make the above jingle accurate, it’d need to be something like:
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’.
And that doesn’t even rhyme
________________________________________________________________________________
It’s nice to know I’m not the only one
& yes, I’ll be gifting me a mug today.
& YaY
I hope I recieve it tomorrow.
🙂