How to spell: words containing ‘ie’ and ‘ei’

Stuart Cook October 4, 2011 Spelling 5

British children learning to spell words containing ‘ie’ or ‘ei’ are traditionally taught a golden rule:

Put ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’.

I am sure this rule has kept many people in good stead when confronting the problem of whether to spell a word –ie- or –ei-.

But is this rule correct? Does it always help us?

Yes, the rule is correct on the whole; however it does need some clarifying and there are exceptions. So here goes, as simply as possible.

The thing to consider is the sound we hear when we write ‘ie’ or ‘ei’. Is it, or isn’t it, the ‘e’ sound that we hear in meet and feet?

When the sound is ‘e’, as in meet and feet

Spell the word –ie-. Some examples: believe, yield, reprieve, relieve, retrieve.

However, as the golden rules tells us, after ‘c’ we should write –ei-. Some examples of this are: ceiling, receive, perceive, conceit, conceive, receipt.

There are some exceptions, e.g.: species, mischief, chief, handkerchief (note that the ie is not directly after the ‘c’ in the last three words).

When the sound is NOT the ‘e’ sound in meet and feet

In this case, always spell the word –ei-. Some examples are: foreign, their, eight, vein, weight, apartheid, feisty, height, neighbour.

Two notable exceptions here are: view, friend.

I hope that helps.

Now, I’ll finish with a little quiz question: which small European country has both ‘ie’ and ‘ei’ in its name?

By Stuart Cook

Stuart is an English teacher and runs the Speakspeak website. He currently lives in Prague and has been teaching for over 25 years. ⎜ Get Stuart's e-books

5 Comments

Cupid - December 13, 2011, 1:08 am Reply

The answer to the quiz at the end: Liechtenstein.
- Stuart Cook - December 13, 2011, 10:50 am Reply
  
  Well done, Cupid.
Fez - May 23, 2024, 5:13 pm Reply

Hello, Thank you for writing about the spelling rule as it’s a good rule to know, but I feel I must correct you as you are misleading readers, obviously unintentionally, with your take on the rule. Let me explain …
The rule is “I before E except after C when the EI or the IE sound E”. – (as you stated). Yes there are exceptions (seize, seizure, etc) but the examples you have shown actually stick to this rule (Species, I will give you, but maybe that’s because it’s a plural noun), however, MISCHIEF, CHIEF, HANDKERCHIEF in all these words, I is before the E, it sounds EE, it is not directly after the C (H is in between), so, they do all stick to the rule and are not exceptions.
Would it be possible to amend this to reflect the corrections?
- Stuart Cook - June 10, 2024, 5:55 pm Reply
  
  Fez
  I’ve added a note to clarify the ‘ch’ words. Thanks.
  
  Thanks for the comment. Please be aware, though, that ”species” is not a plural noun (”a species”, ”two species”, etc.).
Pippa - August 19, 2024, 7:01 am Reply

I believe that when using British English, collective nouns can be used as either singular or plural, depending on context. (Although as someone who generally uses American English, pluralizing a collective noun hurts my ears.)

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