Lemme see — is it spelled “wiegh” or “weigh”? “Seize” or “sieze”? “Thier” or “their”? “Weird” or “wierd”?
Do you have trouble remembering whether a particular word is spelled I-then-E versus E-then-I? You’re not alone.
There are many variations of a mnemonic to help us english-spellers get those I-E (and E-I) words right. Unfortunately, there are so many exceptions to these rules that they are basically useless. The only way to spell them all properly — is by rote memorization!
Some folks have tried to refine the rule by adding some tweaks…
- I before E except after C or before an R but don’t forget rule number three — E before I after G
- I before E except after C or when sounded as A, as in neighbor or weigh… drop this rule when -c sounds as -sh .
But there are exceptions in every case, which is what happens when you have a language designed by committee (more properly, not designed at all since there’s no real pattern… no reason and very little rhyme).
Here are a couple of delightful poems that reveal the fruitlessness of such rules…
Why I Did Not Reign
Eve Merriam – A Sky Full of Poems, 1973
I longed to win the spelling bee
And I remembered the rule
I had learned in school:“I before E,
Except after C.”Friend, believe me,
No one was going to deceive me.Fiercely, I practiced, the scepter I’d wield,
all other their shields in the field would yield!Alas, before my very eyes
A weird neighbor in a beige veil
Feigning great height and weighty size
Seized the reins and ran off with the prize.Now I no longer deign to remember that rule.
Neither
Any other either.
And another:
I Before E, if Taken with Caffeine
Poem ©1995 by Jef Raskin
“I before E
Except after C,
Unless pronounced A
As in ‘neighbor‘ or ‘weigh‘”Education is forfeit for reinforcing such rules!
Sound a feisty reveille while eyeing the schools!
Neither will our heirs be agreeing to deceptions
Once seeing, herein, these sufficient exceptions:We were seized by a feeling
For fleeing on the ceiling
To a leisurely meal
With Keith, Sheila, and NeilWe drank madeira, so foreign, in steins
Along with a surfeit of weird blueish wines
Being foolish, took codeine, ate ancient proteins
Therein guaranteeing these ogreish scenesWherein we’re canoeing to a new sovereign state
While deicing a kaleidoscope on a hot jadeite plate
And kneeing obeisance to an overseeing king
Our plebeian lips kissed his counterfeit ring.Then we unveiled their sleight-of-hand trick
Deifying a heifer, with effect atheistic
And falling from the heights with a loud seismic crunch
We reignited the nonpareils we had heisted for lunch.So I before E
Except after C
Unless pronounced A?
False decreeing, I say!