-ie- or -ei-Sometimes it is difficult to remember whether a word is spelled with -ie- or -ei-. There is a very simple rule about this:
| Rule | Examples | | I before E | achieve, believe, brief, chief, friend, grief, hygiene, patience, pierce, priest, thief | | Except after C | ceiling, conceit, conceive, deceit, deceive, perceive, receipt, receive |
Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule. 1. When the sound rhymes with "may", the spelling is -ei-: - beige, feint, freight, inveigle, neighbour, sleigh, vein, weigh, weight
2. Here are a few more common exceptions: - either, neither, caffeine, codeine, counterfeit, foreign, forfeit, height, leisure, protein, their, weird, seize, seizure
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