I before E except after C is a grammar rule most of us learn in elementary school. However, the I before E rule has a few exceptions. This article will help you learn, or remember, when it is appropriate to use I before E and when to use E before I.

“I before E” is a section of a poem that was invented as a mnemonic device to help people remember the order of vowels when spelling a word that has both an i and an e.

Sometimes people say this portion of the rhyme as a cue for the rest, and sometimes this is the only part of the rhyme they remember. To see the whole mnemonic and learn more about spelling words that have ie or ei, keep on reading.

The Original Mnemonic

Here is the entire mnemonic that many folks have learned:

i before e

except after c

or when sounding like /ay/

as in neighbor or weigh.

Many words fit this model, in that either

1) they are spelled ie and do not either follow c or sound like /ay/

2) they are spelled ei and do follow c

3) they are spelled ei and do sound like /ay/

Examples of words that fit the model in one of the three ways follow:

I before E words
achieve
believe
fiend
grieve
relieve
retrieve

E before I after C words
ceiling
conceit
conceive
deceive
inconceivable
perceive
receive

E before I, sounding like /ay/ words
beige
deign
eight
feint
freight
reign
sleigh
surveillance
veil
vein

Because believe, receive, and receipt loom large among frequently misspelled words-sometimes they make lists of the top 100-and the mnemonic helps with them, many people find the mnemonic useful.

The problem is that other words that are apt to appear on the same list-words like conscience, foreign, leisure, and weird-violate the mnemonic. So, yes, the mnemonic can help the speller having difficulties, but it can misdirect him or her at the same time.

There are two important ways that the mnemonic can fail the speller. First, it can leave the speller in the lurch because it proves to be incomplete. Second, in some cases, it fails through misdirection, suggesting a blanket rule when the fact show a more complicated orthographical reality. Let’s examine each of these types of problems.

An Incomplete Model

We said that not all cases are covered by the mnemonic. What is missing?

On the one hand, ei can spell /aye/ as in stein and /ee/ as in seize or /eh/ as in one pronunciation of leisure, and the mnemonic gives no guidance for such occurrences, leading to the assumption that, as they are not excluded, they should be spelled ie, though in fact, they are not. Here are words that fit these patterns, and several others:

EI spells /aye/, not after c
eider
either and neither (each in one of its possible pronunciations)
feisty
height
kaleidoscope
stein
and names such as Bernstein, Einstein, Weinstein, etc.

EI spells /ee/, not after c
caffeine
codeine
either and neither (each in one of its possible pronunciations)
geisha
inveigle
leisure (in one of its pronunciations)
obeisance
plebeian
protein
seize

EI spells /eh/, not after c
heifer
heir

EI spells /ih/, not after c
foreign
forfeit
sovereign
surfeit

Then there are the odd examples of the words weir and weird, which are also not covered. Because these exceptions are not named by the mnemonic, people might incorrectly conclude that they are to be spelled ie.

Cases in which the Mnemonic Is Wrong

Then there are cases in which the mnemonic heads the user in the wrong direction. If the mnemonic is correct, there should be no cases of cie. But such cases exist.

Words with cie
ancient
conscience
deficient
delicacies
discrepancies
efficiencies (2 violations of the mnemonic)
efficient
fancied
financier
glacier
omniscient
policies
prescient
proficient
prophecies
science
society
species
sufficient
tendencies
vacancies

In summary, if you use I after E to remember how to spell believe, receive and neighbor and stay aware of its limitations, you’ll do okay. If you try to extend it beyond the territory in which it’s useful, however, you may find yourself in orthographical hot water!