I before e except after c

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"I before e, except after c" is a mnemonic device used to help students remember how to spell certain words in the English language. It means that, in words where i and e fall together, the order is ie, except directly following c, when it is ei. For example:

  • ie in words like siege, friend
  • ei in words like ceiling, receive

However, in its short form the rule has many common exceptions, e.g.:

  • ie after c: science, sufficient, agencies, financier, efficient, species
  • ei not after c: their, foreign, being, neither, weird, vein, seize, leisure

Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for a pronunciation key.

Contents

[edit] American version

An augmented American version is:

i before e
except after c
or when sounding like a
as in neighbor and weigh

(Here a is [eɪ].) This excludes many of the exceptions but still fails to correctly handle many others, such as protein.

[edit] British version

A British version is:

when the sound is ee
it's i before e
except after c

(Here ee is [iː].) This excludes most exceptions, as well as excluding some words (e.g. friend) which are correctly handled by the American version. The most frequent everyday failures of the British form of the rule are seize, caffeine, protein (here -ein(e) was originally pronounced [iː.ɪn]) and, for those who pronounce the initial vowel sound [iː], either and neither. Weird and weir are often listed as exceptions, though the pronunciation of -eir in Received Pronunciation is [ɪə(ɹ)] rather than [iː(ɹ)]. Inflections of words ending -cy (fancied, policies etc.) are exceptions for those with happY tensing accents, who pronounce the -cies/-cied endings [siz]/[sid]/rather than [sɪz]/[sɪd].

Few common words have the cei spelling handled by the rule: verbs ending -ceive and their derivatives (perceive, deceit, transceiver, receipts, etc), and ceiling. Many words spelled with ei are pronounced [iː] in America but not Britain (e.g. sheikh, leisure, either have [eɪ], [ɛ], [aɪ] respectively). In these cases, the British pronunciation is a corollary of the British rule (i.e. when spelt ei, the pronunciation cannot be [iː]).

[edit] Exceptions

This section lists exceptions to the basic form; many will not be exceptions to the augmented forms. The word oneiromancies (studies into the meaning of dreams) breaks the rule twice, in both ways. The words deficiencies, efficiencies, sufficiencies, zeitgeist and einsteinium break the rule twice in the same way.

[edit] cie

Some groups of words have cie:

  • Inflections of words ending -cy (fancied, policies, etc.)
  • science and related words (conscience, prescient, etc.)
  • Other words ending -cient -ciency (ancient,efficiency, etc.)
  • Suffixes -ier or -iety after a root ending in -c: financier glacier society

[edit] ei not preceded by c

Some groups of words have ei:

  • Chemical names ending in -ein or -eine (caffeine, casein, codeine, phenolphthalein, phthalein, protein, etc.)
  • Many proper names (Keith, Leith, Neill, Sheila, etc.)
  • Scottish English words (deil, etc.)
  • Prefixes de- or re- before words staring with i (deindustrialize, reignite, etc.)
  • Inflection -ing after verbs those ending in e which do not drop the e (being, seeing, swingeing, etc.)

Miscellaneous others: in the following lists, words are grouped by the sound corresponding to ei in the spelling. An asterisk* after a word indicates the pronunciation implied is one of several found. Separate transcriptions for rhotic and non-rhotic accents are given for eir and ier. Most derived forms are omitted; for example, as well as seize, there exist disseize and seizure.

[eɪ] 
these exceptions are excluded by the American version: beige cleidoic deign dreidel eight feign feint freight geisha gleization gneiss greige greisen heigh-ho* heinous* inveigle* neigh neighbo(u)r obeisance* peignoir* reign rein seiche seidel seine sheikh* sleigh surveillance veil vein weigh
eir as [ɛɹ]/[ɛə(ɹ)] 
these exceptions are excluded by the American version: heir their
[i] 
these exceptions are the only ones that slip through the strictest interpretation of the British version: either* heinous* inveigle* keister leisure* monteith neither* obeisance* seize seizin sheikh* specie teiid
[i] or [ɪ], depending on happy tensing 
these exceptions may slip through the British version: species
eir as [ɪɹ]/[ɪə(ɹ)] 
these exceptions may slip through the British version: weir weird
[aɪ]
eider either* einsteinium feisty heigh-ho* height heist kaleidoscope leitmotiv neither* Rotweiller seismic zeitgeist
[ɪ]
counterfeit forfeit surfeit
[ɪ] or [ə], depending on weak vowel merger
foreign reveille* sovereign
[ɛ]
heifer leisure* peignoir*
[æ]
reveille*
e and i in separate segments
albeit atheism deify deity onomatopoeia

[edit] Cultural references

"I Before E Except After C" was a song Charlie Brown and Linus sing, with Snoopy playing a jaw harp, to prepare Charlie for his school's spelling bee in A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The song covered several other spelling rules, e.g., words ending in -cede, -ceed and -sede.

The "I before E" rule was debated in a Canadian TV commercial for the Hyundai Santa Fe.

Brian Regan mentions the rule in his observational humor.

In The Simpsons episode "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", Marge and Lisa discuss the rule:

Marge: Remember: "I before E except after C."
Lisa: Except as an A as in "neighbor" and "weigh".
Marge: What about "Jim Nabors is way cool?"
Lisa: When will that ever come up?
Marge: It's on my apron!

[edit] External links

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