Whether to spell any given word with ie or ei can often stump native English speakers. In school many of us were taught the mnemonic device "I before E except after C or when sounding like A as in ‘neighbor’ and ‘weigh.’ " This is a fairly good rule, but it has a lot of exceptions.
I before E (with a long E sound)… | exceptions | |
belief | caffeine | |
hurried | either | |
lien | leisure | |
piece | protein | |
shield | seize | |
thieves | sheik | |
except after C… | ||
ceiling | deficient | |
conceit | science | |
receipt | sufficient | |
receive | species | |
or when sounding like "A" as in… | ||
neighbor | ||
weigh | ||
eight | ||
rein | ||
vein | ||
veil |
So much for the rule. Here are some other exceptions:
Long I sound
- height
- heist
- seismic
Other sounds
- albeit
- deity
- forfeit
- heifer
- their
- weird
Re + verb beginning with I
- reinforce
- reintroduce
- reinvigorate
Verbs that end in E + ing
- agreeing
- being
- fleeing
- seeing