In high school we were taught a spelling rule for when “I” comes before “e” and vice versa. This rule had many fewer exceptions than the old, “’I’ before ‘e” except after ‘c’ or when sounded as ‘a’ as in ‘neighbor’ and ‘weigh,’” but I’ll be damned if I can remember it.
Anyone? Anyone?
The best single rule that I can think of is to look the word up in a dictionary. Any other rule would have to be weird (or is it wierd – I can’t remember).
There is no easily stated rule that avoids the many exceptions which must be created to govern the actual spellings using ei.
The old “I before E” saw mentioned in the OP seems to me to get a lot of mileage … more than enough to serve as a useful mnemonic. Are there even 10 commonly-used exceptions?
“Weird” is one. Just how many exceptions are there.
I’m a little confused here. How do you get “many fewer [bolding mine] exceptions than the old, i before e except after c or when sounded as a as in neighbor and weigh,” seeing as that’s only two exceptions, and rather necessary ones at that? Many fewer than two? Huh?
I certainly rely on the “I before E except after C”, but always fall down with deity…
(even though I typed it eight times in a post last night I had to run off and check it now)
Wish there was a proper rule but I’ve long since given up searching.
Budweiser.
That’s all I got.
Well, if it’s from German, and you know how it’s pronounced, it’s easy, because German pronounces “ei” and “ie” quite differently. However, if I had a cent for every time I’ve heard “Riesling” pronounced the wrong way …
“…except seize and seizure, and also in leisure…”
Okay, I’m out.
Neither leisured foreign counterfeiter could attain either weird height without forfeitting protein.
My neighbor’s eight beige reindeer weigh too much to be sent by freight.
Between those two sentences, you’ve got almost every exception to the “i before e except after c” rule. Seizure and either are the only common ones I can think of that are left out.
I was looking this up the other day when going over some lessons with my son. From HERE:
Also note that the “I before E” rule applies to native English words, taken from Old English or Norman French. There are a large number of Latinate and Greek coinages, using the -ity, -ist/-ism, and related suffixes on words whose root ends in “e-”, that violate the rule. There are a huge number of words borrowed from German. “My weird atheist niece drank a stein of beer and ate a wiener.”
Okay, with weird, that makes four. Cases such as “deity” and “piety”, to me, are different because the “i” and “e” are split across two syllables.
Another that comes to mind is counterfeit (making 5). Perhaps also surfeit, but that rides the line between common and stilted. Screw it … surfeit is on the exceptions list. Can we make it to 10?
See ultrafilter’s list. My mom taught me a mnemonic that included “weird financier” but it didn’t stick.
The best way to learn to spell is simply to read lots. The more you read, the more any incorrect spellings just leap off the page at you like some kind of wierd, fiesty, foriegn financeirs.
The i and the e are in the right place, but there’s only one t in “forfeiting”.
(NB this post is 101% likely to contain at least one typo.)
Iether way, it gives me a siezure.
Yes – you had 101% when you should have written 100% 
Yeah, I know I can look it up in a dictionary or use spell check, but sometimes those things aren’t available. (Unless I’m missing something, I don’t see a spell checker in this SDMB reply window I’m using.)
The rule I’m trying to remember was in my English III textbook, which was maybe 5" x 7" in size and had a picture of a printer’s typecase on the cover. In fact our school used the complete series of these books for the four years of English. The covers were identical except for the color of the square that the title was printed in.
Anyone remember those books?
“I before E, except after C, or when sounded like A, as in neighbor and sleigh, or in certain other weird words.”
“I before E, except after C” --the classic rule
“I before E, except after C, or when sounded like A, as in neighbor and sleigh.” --my dad’s revised version
“I before E, except after C, or when sounded like A, as in neighbor and sleigh, or in certain other weird words.” --my own formulation
