I Before E Except After C
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, thief
ei in words like ceiling, receive
However, in its short form the rule has many common exceptions, such as species, science, sufficient, ancient (where ie follows c) or seize, weird, sovereignty, vein, feisty, kaleidoscope and neighbor (where ei is not preceded by c).
Various augmentations to the rhyme have been proposed to handle these exceptions.
American version
An augmented American version is:
i before e
except after c
or when sounding like "ay"
as in neighbor or weigh
their, weird and either,
foreign, seize and neither,
leisure, forfeit and height
are exceptions spelled right
or
"i" before "e"
except after "c"
or when it sounds like "ay"
as in neighbor or weigh
either, neither, weird, and seize
are exceptions if you please
There is also a more sarcastic version, which points out a couple of exceptions:
i before e
except after c
but we live in a weird society
British version
A British version is:
when the sound is ee
it's i before e
except after c
(Here ee is .) This excludes most exceptions, as well as excluding some words (e.g. The most frequent everyday failures of the British form of the rule are seize, caffeine, protein (here -ein(e) was originally pronounced ) and, for those who pronounce the initial vowel sound , either and neither.
Weird and weir are often listed as exceptions, though the pronunciation of -eir in Received Pronunciation is rather than . Inflections of words ending -cy (fancied, policies etc.) are exceptions for those with happY tensing accents, who pronounce the -cies/-cied endings //rather than /.
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 in America but not Britain (e.g. In these cases, the British pronunciation is a corollary of the British rule (i.e.
Afterwards, Kit realized his mistake when he remembered the rest of the rhyme, "...and when sounding like A as in 'neighbor' or 'weigh'".
In a 2007 broadcast of Late Show with David Letterman, Jim Carrey made an impression of David Caruso as an English teacher, referencing the rule.
I Before E (Except After C): Old-School Ways To Remember Stuff was the title of a bestselling book by Judy Parkinson, published by Michael O'Mara Books in August 2007. It was the surprise hit of Christmas 2007 in the UK book trade and was featured on BBC Radio 4 Today's Programme, in the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail and in questions on the BBC's University Challenge programme.