"i" before "e" except after "c"

[Pauline Bryant]

The rule works pretty well if you were taught the whole rule:



i before e

except after c

when the sound is ee. .....(That sound is [i] or ~ee.)



It's the last line that makes the rule work.



We were told that the only exception to the rule is 'seize', though
'protein' and 'caffeine' are other exceptions, and there may be a few more.



Pauline





Tom Zurinskas wrote:



I examined the; "i" before "e" except after "c" rule (cei vs. cie).



The database of truespel book 4 is used to analyze the number

of words with tradstreengz "cie" and "cei".  The data involves

the top 5k most popular words in English print.  The overall word

instances for these 5k words 15.4 million.  For example, the word

"the" is most popular with 1.08 M instances out of 15.4 M total.



[Snip]



CONCLUSION

The "i" before "e" except after "c" rule is busted.

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