Sunday, April 27, 2008

I before E except after C

The only word I can think of that makes the "except after C" part of the rule necessary is receive. Can you think of any others?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ceiling

laura k said...

Please forgive the off-topicness.

Since you have treated me to so many great laughs through your blog, I wanted to share this with you, without posting it to my own blog.

Via Joy of Sox. Enjoy.

M@ said...

Hmmm... deceive (and derivatives), receipt, conceive (and derivatives)... perceive (and derivatives)... I think that's it.

I understand the rule exists because -ci- would be pronounced as a hard c, so reversing the i and e provides the needed soft c. However, it occurs to me that we don't pronounce cruciform, as an example, with a hard c, so I wonder if I've misunderstood the rule somehow.

Of course, the neighbour and weigh corollary makes a mockery of the whole "rule" thing...

impudent strumpet said...

OMG, I can't believe I missed all those! I don't think the I makes the C hard though - at least, it makes it soft in all my Germanic and Romantic languages, and I think that's what the K is in "trafficking" for. Poodle, you still around?

Please forgive the off-topicness.

Oh, I dunno, I think the cover charge for this thread is a word with cei in it.

Seriously though, that guy is mad crazy awesome hilarious and is getting forwarded to everyone I know.