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As a non-native speaker and before the advent of the panaceas called spell-checkers and auto-correct, I used to often misspell words like receive ( as "recieve") and achieve (as "acheive").

I still make the mistake sometimes and thanks to auto-correct/in-built spell checkers in browsers, I am never able to get a hang of which spelling to use when!

Is there any easy way to remember when to put 'i' before 'e' (as in "believe", "relief" etc.) and when to put 'i' after 'e' (receive, receipt, deceit, and so on)?

Jasper
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BiscuitBoy
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6 Answers6

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The usual mnemonic in English to remember the ruling for this is represented by a fairly simple poem:

i before e, Except after c, Or when sounded as "a," As in neighbour and weigh.

Of course, as with any rule there are some exceptions: the most notable ones are either, neither, inveigle and seize. Unfortunately there isn't a cast-iron procedure for determining what's an exception and what isn't, though the most common cause of an exception is when the word has a long 'e' sound.

John Clifford
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  • It's taught to us fairly early in primary school, but probably not something that's commonly used when teaching non-native speakers. – John Clifford Feb 02 '16 at 10:22
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    I was taught "When the sound is ee" rather than "except when it's ay", which takes care of either/neither (first syllable is eye) and inveigle (ay like inveigh) but still leaves seize to remember. But that reduces the "remember" list. – Andrew Leach Feb 02 '16 at 10:33
  • Not a bad point, but can you fit a word that rhymes into that? :P – John Clifford Feb 02 '16 at 10:35
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    @AndrewLeach I've never heard that one, though probably partly because of my accent. I'd say either as "ee-ther" not "eye-ther", which undermines the rule somewhat. –  Feb 02 '16 at 10:59
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    @SuperBiasedMan Same here, we say ee-ther and nee-ther. – John Clifford Feb 02 '16 at 11:02
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    Let's call the whole thing off ... –  Feb 02 '16 at 11:11
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    @JohnClifford The version I learned was "I before E except after C, when the sound is E". Not really a rhyme, but easy to remember. – Andrew Leach Feb 02 '16 at 11:15
  • @AndrewLeach Ah, I get you now. – John Clifford Feb 02 '16 at 11:18
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    Another mnemonic device that was taught by rote to primary school children: "Neither leisured foreigners seized the weird heights." The word "either" rode along with its negative sibling. The saying helped us to remember exceptions until we were strong enough to lift volumes of the OED. Cheers! –  Feb 02 '16 at 11:34
  • Haha, that's a good one. Thing is, in Scottish schools they have us lifting volumes of the OED in nursery school. ;) – John Clifford Feb 02 '16 at 11:36
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    I'm fond of "I before E, except after C, and except when pulling a feisty heist on a weird beige foreign neighbour." – DJClayworth Feb 02 '16 at 15:42
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    Gotta love them feisty heists. – John Clifford Feb 02 '16 at 15:44
  • I have a lot of questions about your capitalisation habits... – cat Feb 02 '16 at 16:17
  • If you're referring to the poem that was a copy and paste; the capitalisation isn't mine. :) – John Clifford Feb 02 '16 at 16:18
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    Not a very good rule. The list of exceptions is too large: "beige, cleidoic, codeine, conscience, deify, deity, deign, dreidel, eider, eight, either, feign, feint, feisty, foreign, forfeit, freight, gleization, gneiss, greige, greisen, heifer, heigh-ho, height, heinous, heir, heist, leitmotiv, neigh, neighbor, neither, peignoir, prescient, rein, science, seiche, seidel, seine, seismic, seize, sheik, society, sovereign, surfeit, teiid, veil, vein, weight, weir, weird " – DavidPostill Feb 02 '16 at 17:31
  • Oh, and don't forget Sheila – DavidPostill Feb 02 '16 at 17:32
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    The majority of those fall under ei forming an "ay" sound, which was covered. Fair point though. – John Clifford Feb 02 '16 at 17:33
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    Exceptions to the rule 'I before E except after C' – DavidPostill Feb 02 '16 at 17:34
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    Put it this way then: the OP is probably going to spell more words correctly than incorrectly following this rule, given how many of the exceptions he'll probably never have to write, so it was still useful advice. :) – John Clifford Feb 02 '16 at 17:45
  • @DavidPostill Almost all of those counterexamples are fixed by the "except when the sound is 'ee'" version, which is what they always taught when I was at primary school in England. – David Richerby Feb 02 '16 at 23:08
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    @DavidRicherby All very well, but the OP is by his own admission "a non-native speaker" - which means he will probably also be struggling to pronounce the words correctly (in order to spell them correctly using the ''ee" rule). In any case just to pick 3 of them - of beige, weird, and height only one fits the "ee" rule ... (cont) – DavidPostill Feb 02 '16 at 23:23
  • (cont) so now we have two exceptions 1/ "ay" sound and 2/ "ee" sound. How about a third 3/ "i" sound for "neither". All very confusing for a non-native speaker, who will get even more confused when someone pronounces "neither" as "neether" ;) – DavidPostill Feb 02 '16 at 23:27
  • (cont) for a somewhat useless statistic (aren't they all) https://www.morewords.com/contains/ei/ lists "1767 words" containing "ei" and https://www.morewords.com/contains/ie/ lists "4000 or more words found. Only first 4000 shown." 1767 is a huge number of exceptions ;) – DavidPostill Feb 02 '16 at 23:43
  • I don't get why 'beige' would be an exception to the rule. Certainly, it should fall under "sounded as 'a,' as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh'"? Are there alternate pronunciations besides bAYzh? The top dictionary result has the same pronunciation, and doesn't list any alternatives: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beige – Quack E. Duck Jun 11 '23 at 03:22
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Most native speakers of English have trouble spelling weird words like "receive" and "achieve". The "I before E, except after C or said as 'a' like in 'neighbor' and 'weigh'" rule helps, but still has "weird" exceptions.

I try to pay attention when spell-checkers complain about these words.

I also remember a few related words:

Reception does not have any confusion between Es and Is. It makes it clear that the "e" goes immediately after the "c" in related words like "receive", "conceive", "perceive", "deceive", et cetera.

Chief is a fairly common word. There is an American professional football team named the Kansas City Chiefs. A "chief" is like a minor "king", where the "i" goes immediately after the consonant. This helps me remember how to spell related words like "achieve" and "mischief".

By the way, Kansas City sports teams have a "king" theme. The following teams have played in Kansas City, either now or in the past:

  • Royals (American League baseball)
  • Monarchs (Negro League baseball)
  • Kings (National Basketball Association)
  • Chiefs (National Football League)
Jasper
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  • Apparently it is a coincidence that the words "king" and "chief" are vaguely similar. "King" is related to the word "kin", and might have meant "battle winner" or "tribe leader", where a "tribe" was a group of related people who fought together in battle. "Chief" is related to the words "chef", "capo", "cap", and "capital", which are related to the Latin word for a person's head. – Jasper Feb 03 '16 at 16:48
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This might not be what you want to hear, but the answer is practice and internalization.

And spell checking.

Zbyněk Dráb
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    Hi, Zbynek, your post doesn't answer the question and reads more like a comment. If you have more than 50 reputation points, you can leave a comment. Please refrain from posting an answer like this. –  Feb 02 '16 at 13:46
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    Looking for "rules" that predict how English words are spelled is a fool's errand. No rule will be accurate in more cases than consulting references will be. "Practice and internalization" is a good way to reduce the dependence on references. – jejorda2 Feb 02 '16 at 14:51
  • @jejorda2 - I do agree that practice makes perfect. Yet, it wouldn't hurt to have easy-to-remember mnemonics, at least for non-native speakers, IMO. Had I been taught this rule in my childhood, I would have saved a lot of time without needing to right-click on the red-underlined words and choosing the correct spelling. –  Feb 02 '16 at 16:25
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    I agree with Rathony. This answer can be posted on almost all questions like this and still valid. Worst of all, it doesn't explain anything that might help OP (and future readers) learn. – Andrew T. Feb 03 '16 at 02:35
  • @BiscuitBoy the point native speakers are making is not to follow the "rule" lavishly, it's more like a handy tip, be also aware of the many exceptions to this tip. – Mari-Lou A Feb 03 '16 at 07:31
  • @Mari-LouA - I understood that and I have posted a few of my learnings in chat (which was forced on me btw). I don't ask you to participate in chat but I'm linking my comments nonetheless for your reference. Comment1 Comment2 –  Feb 03 '16 at 07:42
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There is only a handfull of words where long /i :/ is spelt with ei. The following list is from my own collection:

1 to conceive

2 to deceive

3 to receive

4 to seize

5 a surfeit - Short i.

6 weird adj

No.1 with 3 go back to Latin cipere, in French concevoir, decevoir, recevoir. I think the logic of the spelling is from French -cevoir. The i is placed after e. This seems to be a way to remind of the French connection. The French ending -voir is replaced by -ve. The case is different with no. 4 to 6.

Added: As sumelic said "surfeit" is pronounced with short i, so in Oald.

rogermue
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I have found that, for situations like this, auto-correct is your enemy.

If you use auto-correct, you will not learn, since it is done for you.

I have my web browser and word-processor HIGHLIGHT ONLY my errors, and I correct them manually. That way, I learn. It's annoying, which helps.

0

You can try using a Spaced Repetition Software (SRS), like Anki or Supermemo. Simply create a flashcard which asks you for the proper spelling. Wih an SRS you won't have to review the spelling very often.

alexgiorev
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