i.e. English is weird
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
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"I before E, except after C, and when sounding like A, as in neighbor and weigh, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong, no matter what you say."
Boxen!
The big yellow one is the sun
"It's a cup of dirt! ...I took a cup... and I put some dirt in it."
Do you have tube of cannonball wound ointment?
That's a hard rule... That's a rough rule...
That's kinda funny for me as a former pony fan because that exact bit got turned into a super-popular animation that at least cemented itself in the brains of all my friends.
That's funny! Now I'll always have to wonder if folks think I'm quoting Brian Regan, or that animation.
This is the type of mnemonic device I can get behind. Now if only it were subtly rooted in class consciousness...
...except after "c" or when sounding like "ay", as in neighbor or weigh
- Neighbor
- Eight
- Beige
- Sleigh
- Received
- Foreign
- Weightlifters
Follow the rule
The actual rule is "memorise every word individually over a lifetime because there are no rules"
Just memorize the exceptions. It's better to memorize rules than words.
Not if the rules don't fucking work lol.
I'm seizing this!
I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but it's pronounced sayzing. It has to because of the rule.
You must pronounce Foreign in a strange way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_before_E_except_after_C
How do you pronounce 'received'? (Or foreign, for that matter...)
It doesn't work all the time. English is full of nonsense like that. People always only remember half of this rule though.
Because English is three languages in a trench coat.
In a french coat
Hon hon hon!
Omelette du fromage?
False. It's the runoff of a language-rich neighborhood. Stewing in a ditch filled with what looks like mud but smells like a dead family of possums at the bottom of a park trash can.
You isn’t wrong
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"Received" would be the "except after C" part, not the "sounding like ay" part.
Not sure about "foreign", or "leisure" for that matter. Maybe foreign used to be pronounced with the "ay" sound. I'm guessing something similar with leisure.
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.
Four-Ay-Gun
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That’s not very scientific…
Edit: Downvote why? ‘Science’ clearly doesn’t follow the rule.
Good point, need to add that it’s also only for diphthongs. Science doesn’t apply because the i and e are in different syllables.
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or when sounding like "ay", as in neighbor or weigh
And on weekends and holidays and all throughout may. You'll always be wrong no matter what you say!
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I before E except after C, We live in a weird society.
I think you mean wceird... 😵
English was a mistake, you shouldn't mix so many languages. Look what you've done!
i before e, except after c, and this only applies when it rhymes with "me"
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