Spelling Rule: Use I Before E Except After C

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Mastering the I Before E Rule

(Or Don't Let the C-I-E-N Words Get You Uptight!)

by Don McCabe

Catalog #W723N $9.95 8綞11 Spiral Bound ISBN: 1-56400-780-4

Although this book is now out of print, it can be found in:

It-ss & Tooze, Apostrophes, and the I Before E Rule Made Easy

The "I before E except after C" rule that is so often quoted doesn't work with words such as: vein, science, Einstein, sufficient, neither, weird, plus about two hundred or so more. So why bother with it? The answer is simply, don't bother with half a rule. If you learn the whole rule you will find out that it does work 99.9999% of the time!

This book presents the rule and then very slowly and methodically teaches the meaning of each part. What the author found out when he first taught this rule to junior high students at the Flint Alternative Junior High School is that they really didn't understand the meaning of the word except.

So he not only had the students memorize the ENTIRE RULE, but he also developed exercises in which the students had to give the reason for their answers.

Here is the Complete Rule	Examples that follow the rule

Use I before E	ie = believe, field, yield, priest, shield
Except after C	cei=receive, receipt, conceited, conceive
Or when sounded as "I" as in Einstein	"I" = ei Eileen, height, sleight, stein, Einstein
Or "A" as in weigh	"A" = ei weigh, weight, neighbor, sleigh, heir, their
Neither, weird, foreign, leisure	"X" = ei either, weirdo, foreigner
Seize, forfeit, and height	"X" = ei seizure, forfeiture, protein, caffeine, heifer
Are the common exceptions spelled right
But don't let the C-I-E-N words get you uptight!	cien = cien!=science, efficient, sufficient, conscience, ancient,

Remember the words we said didn't follow the rule? They do follow the complete rule.
Here they are: vein, science, Einstein, sufficient, neither, weird.

Correctly applying the rule means:

vein is ei because it sounds as "A"
science is ie because it is a cien word. (Note: We don't have any cein words)
Einstein has ei's because both sound as "I"
sufficient is ie because it is a cien word.
neither is ei because it is a common exception
weird is ei because it is a common exception

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If you have comments about this website or questions concerning spelling, phonics, learning disabilities, homeschooling, etc., you may always e-mail DonMcCabe@aol.com. We appreciate any comments that will help us make this website even more useful.

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