this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
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The rule that I was taught as a kid was “I before E except after C only if the sound is ee”
It catches all of the examples on the mug except “weird” which gets a pass in my book because it’s weird (Keith’s excluded because proper nouns don’t follow rules). It doesn’t catch “caffeine” but the “ei” in “caffeinated” isn’t pronounced ee where I come from.
I’ve never heard the “ay” rule but it doesn’t seem to catch as many words as the “not ee” rule.
Yeah the whole rule (and really the whole confusion) is about "ee". Other pronunciations are always spelt "ei" anyway.
It still has exceptions but it catches a lot. And i wish people followed it because I die inside every time someone spells "Wiener" as "Weiner". The city is called Wien ffs.