1255: I Before E Except after C? May 17, 2018

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"I before E except after C..." is not only prescriptive and irrelevant, because English spelling is particularly arbitrary, but also usually wrong. There are in fact more exceptions to the rule than words which conform to the rule, in fact, there are 21 times as many words where "I before E except after C" is broken than those that conform. Reportedly, there are 923 words where this is the exception, including 'species' and 'weird'. Even extending the rule "...except when it says [ei] like in 'neighbour' and 'weigh' ", the rule is very much in the minority of relevant words. Indeed, this has recently stopped having been taught at schools, but for a very long time this was the norm in lower education.
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