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"I before E" is a common mnemonic that is taught for spelling certain English words, but this mnemonic is often wrong, as pointed out in this Language Log post.

The aim of this question is to create the longest grammatical English sentence with non-repeating words (each word can only be used once in the entire sentence) which contains the maximum number of words that violate the "I before E" rule, without resorting to quotations, numbers over ten, or proper nouns.

Sentences will be scored by the number of violations, minus the number of non-violations (includes words which don't include "ie" or "ei").

Example:

Caffeinated atheists reinvent their weird foreign neighbours(7-0=7)

Caffeinated atheists reinvent their blue foreign neighbours(6-1=5)

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March Ho
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  • I was taught: "I before E except after C or when sounding like AY as in NEIGHBOR/NEIGHBOUR and WEIGH." That would mean that NEIGHBOUR is not a violation. – Paul Rowe Mar 03 '15 at 18:12
  • @PaulRowe There are lots of variations in the presentation of the rule, because it is such a terrible one. By some counts, there are more exceptions to the (unmodified) rule than there are valid examples. – KSmarts Mar 03 '15 at 18:38
  • Downvoters, care to explain why? I tried to model it after http://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/6691/growing-anagrams-what-is-the-longest-possible-list-forming-a-sentence?s=1|0.5109 – March Ho Mar 03 '15 at 19:53
  • I don't think that rule edit was necessary. Anything over eighty (e.g., eight thousand eight hundred eight) is covered by "non-repeating words". – KSmarts Mar 03 '15 at 19:54
  • @KSmarts You're right, but I'll just leave it in. I realised a few seconds after I edited it. – March Ho Mar 03 '15 at 19:55
  • You need to clarify what repeating means. Does it only count if words are in a row (e.g., "very, very, very, very") or is each unique word only counted once? In the case of the latter, do repeated words that meet the rule count against you? – Engineer Toast Mar 03 '15 at 19:57
  • @EngineerToast Each word should only be used once, otherwise entries like "A B A B A B" will spoil the answers. Answers with repeats are invalid. – March Ho Mar 03 '15 at 20:00
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    @MarchHo I would venture a guess that this is downvoted because the answers are all going to be either ridiculous sentences that no human would ever use and are, therefore, hecka confusing OR they're going to be snarky distortions of the rules. – Engineer Toast Mar 03 '15 at 20:16
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    @EngineerToast And whose fault is that second part? – KSmarts Mar 03 '15 at 20:32
  • @KSmarts Oh, I accept full blame for that. Warspyking posted the first version as a quote and I just adapted it to a sentence. I'm operating within the rules, though. I believe the words should be revised. It's really hard to do what is basically reverse code golf. – Engineer Toast Mar 03 '15 at 20:33
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    I’m voting to close this question because open-ended puzzles are off-topic – bobble May 07 '21 at 14:26

3 Answers3

5

I've got 44-7=37

Eighty feisty, ableit dreich, reigning sovereign sheikhs' heirs, deifing society, inveigled a weird foreign leisurely scientist's fanciest eight rottweilers to forfeit sufficient obeisance, veiling a heinous seismic gneiss vein heist, wherein they abseiled heights of neighboring ancient lithofacies, heigh-ho-ing their weighty freight with beige greige skeins, later efficiently surfeiting on stupefacient codeine.

Basically, a bunch of rich kids charmed some dogs and stole a bunch of rocks, and then OD'd on painkillers.

KSmarts
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1,752 - 5 = 1,747

With inspiration from warspyking:

My favorite words include abseil, abseiled, abseiling, abseils, absenteeism, absenteeisms, ... , zein, zeins, zeitgeber, zeitgebers, zeitgeist, and zeitgeists.

It's the entire list except for eighteen, eighteens, eightfold, eighties, and eighty due to the "no numbers over 10" rule.

I realize this is a snarky response but it's a grammatically correct sentence that meets the current requirements of the question.

The only higher scores I can think of either include numbers over 10 (a rule added to prevent other snarky responses) or are variations on the sentence that uses less words. For instance, "[List] are all words." or even "[List] are words."

Engineer Toast
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  • It looks like the rules need to include use-mention distinction. Also, I don't think "..." is 1755 words. – KSmarts Mar 03 '15 at 20:10
  • @KSmarts I didn't want to type every word in the list. – Engineer Toast Mar 03 '15 at 20:11
  • That list isn't a sentence unless in quotes, which is not allowed. Also, you stole my now deleted answer :( – warspyking Mar 03 '15 at 20:12
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    It's not in quotes and it doesn't need to be. I was definitely inspired by your deleted answer and I considered noting that. I'll do it now. However, yours was a quote with 0 invalid words. Mine is a sentence and, thus, must have invalid words. – Engineer Toast Mar 03 '15 at 20:14
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    @warspyking You're upset about a stolen answer? Interesting, then, that the most recent edit on your own answer makes it exactly the same as someone else's (cough), except for one word. – KSmarts Mar 03 '15 at 20:21
  • @KSmarts Nah I'm not upset, I was just noting that to make sure people new. Mine is an obvious copy as yours isn't deleted :D – warspyking Mar 03 '15 at 20:38
  • Also, why not eightieth, eightieths they demonstrate 1/80, also eighties isn't a number over 10, it's a range. Prop you score up to 1758 – warspyking Mar 03 '15 at 20:41
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    I read "eightieth" as in "eightieth in line" but you're right in that it can also be fractional. Here comes the update. I'm leaving off "eighties", though, as it refers to a range of numbers that are all over 10 even though the word itself is not a number. It's the same reason I'm leaving out "eightfold". After all, we don't want to get silly here... – Engineer Toast Mar 03 '15 at 22:00
  • 1,752 - 5 = 1,757 ??? I can't believe it! – L. F. Jan 28 '19 at 14:00
  • @L.F. Well, that's how New Math would have taught it. The idea is the important thing, after all. – Engineer Toast Jan 28 '19 at 15:44
  • @EngineerToast Can you recommend a good New Math good for me? XD – L. F. Jan 29 '19 at 05:53
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I've got 45-7=38

Eighty feisty, atheistic, albeit dreich, reigning sovereign sheikhs' heirs, deifing society, inveigled a weird foreign leisurely scientist's fanciest eight rottweilers to forfeit sufficient obeisance, veiling a heinous seismic gneiss vein heist, wherein they abseiled heights of neighboring ancient lithofacies, heigh-ho-ing their weighty freight with beige greige skeins, later efficiently surfeiting on stupefacient codeine.

Face it, we can go on until we hit 1767 words...

warspyking
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