what other words do this?

Question

they say its i before e except after c, but then why is weird spelt like this???

Answer 1

totally weird

Answer 2

Re: frog's answer: Don't know if that is his or not. The attribution should go to Richard Lederer, as most of what he has written seems to be taken from a posting at the site below that is credited to him with his permission titled "English Is A Crazy Language". On the other hand, I'm also old enough to remember many of these same lines from George Carlin wa-a-a-ay back in the deep dark [good ole days -- yeah, let's just leave it at that! -- LOL]. So who knows where *these* really started!! Just my 2 cents.

Answer 3

Because lots of rules in English have exceptions. It's an exception to many other languages.

Answer 4

Because of the stupidity of the English language.

Have you never heard that English is based on Rules of Grammar, but with Exceptions ?
Most of the Exceptions also have Exceptions - this makes English one of the most difficult languages to learn.

READ THIS -

Let's face it, English is a crazy language.


There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, two geese -- one moose, two meese? And one index, two indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not through a single annal? If you have a collection of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why don't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, did you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital; ship by truck, and send cargo by ship; have noses that run and feet that smell; park on driveways and drive on parkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another.

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent?
Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable?
And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who WOULD hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all).
That is why, when the stars are out they are visible, but when the lights are out they are invisible.
And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but, when I wind up this essay, I end it.

Answer 5

It's a general rule, not an absolute. There are lots of exceptions:

"except when it's 'ay', as in 'neighbour' or 'weigh' "
'seize'
'caffeine'

And going the other way, 'efficient' and 'science' both have 'i before e, even after c'.

Answer 6

This old schoolroom spelling rule is supposed to help remember
the spelling of vowels pronounced /i:/, the long "e" sound of "feed".
It has no value for words where the vowel is pronounced in any other
way, the key fact which people bemused by many "exceptions" to the
rule usually do not realise. A version often cited in the U.K.
makes the restriction clear:

When the sound is /i:/,
it's I before E
except after C.

A common U.S. version:

...
or when pronounced /eI/
as in "neighbour" and "weigh".

is misleading, as "ei" has many other pronunciations, as in, for
instance, "height", "heifer", and "forfeit". The rule also fails to
apply to names (Sheila, Keith, Leigh, etc.).

"I before E": Properly applied, the rule is a very useful guide for
people who are not naturally excellent spellers; those who are may
look out for themselves. To an RP speaker, the exceptions in common
use are very few: they are "seize", "inveigle", "caffeine",
"protein", and "codeine". (The last three were originally
pronounced as three-syllable words.) Other dialects pronounce a few
other -ei- words with /i:/, making extra exceptions: "either" and
"neither" (RP vowel: /aI/, as in "pie"), "geisha" and "sheik(h)"
(RP: /eI/, as in "say"), and "leisure" (RP: /E/, as in "get"). (Of
course, derivatives of the above words, such as "seizure",
"decaffeinate", and "sheik(h)dom", are spelled similarly.) There
are many exceptions in Scots, so speakers with a large Scots
vocabulary may as well give up on this rule. The vowel in "weir"
and "weird" is usually quite different, as comparison of "weird" and
"weed" will show; for most speakers, "weird" has a diphthong.

"except after C": Fowler, who called the rule "very useful", noted:
"The c exception covers the many derivatives of Latin capio
[= "take"], which are in such common use (receive, deceit,
inconceivable; cf. relieve, belief, irretrievable) that a
simple rule of thumb is necessary." For most Britons, /i:/ after C
is always "ei" rather than "ie", except in "specie" and "species".
Americans generally pronounce -cies and -cied in words derived from
-cy endings (e.g., "fancies" and "fancied" from "fancy") with /i:/
rather than /I/, making these words exceptions. Still, few people
have any difficulty pluralizing -y, so such speakers should still be
able to extract some value from the rule, by the application of a
little common sense.

Answer 7

This is called an "exception" to the rule. There are several words in the English language that do this. "Recieved" is one example as well.

Answer 8

Neighbor. Weigh. I learned it "I before e except after c with the exception of neighbor and weigh."

Answer 9

Because for every rule in the English Language there are five more which break that rule.

Answer 10

I always learned that it was "I before E except after c, with the exception of neighbor and weigh... lol.. i really don't know, but i have a good one... IF MORE THAN ONE GOOSE IS CALLED GEESE, WHY IS MORE THAN ONE MOOSE NOT CALLED MEESE? AND, BTW, WHAT IS MORE THAN ONE MOOSE CALLED?

Answer 11

the full quote is:
"i before e,
except after c,
or when sounding like 'a'
as in neighbor and weigh"

Good luck!