If its" I before E except after C " than why is" their "spelled this way?

Answer 1

No grammar/spelling rule is perfect: "i before e except after c, or when they say A as in neighbor and weigh" is the complete mnemonic!

Answer 2

First look at the common words with 'c' & 'I' & 'e' after 'c':

RECEIVE

DECEIVE

CONCEIVE,

In all the above words with 'c', It is 'e'before 'i" after 'c'

Let's examine words with 'i' & 'e' without 'c'

BeLIEve
ReLIEve
Yield
Field
Cries
Friend
Siege
etc etc

In all words, 'i' comes before 'e'

THE RULE:
'I before e, except after c is a mnemonic used to help English students remember how to spell certain words in the English language. '

It means that, in words where i and e fall together, the order is ie, except directly following c, when it is ei.

But this rule has a lot of exceptions such as:

1.
ie after c: science, sufficient, agencies, financier

ei not after c: their, foreign, being, neither, weird, vein

2 Words that break the rule twice: words such as

deficiencies, efficiencies, sufficiencies

In the beginnig, we may use the rule strictly & at a later stage, we had better make a serious note of the flexibility of English Spelling & the excceptions to the rule.

So the RULE MUST BE FOLLOWED IN SPIRIT RATHER THAN IN LETTER!

Source:

Answer 3

there are exceptions to EVERY rule in the English language, I think. That is why you should be blessed to be living in the era of spelling and grammar checkers...although some people think that gives them the chance to stop using their brains completely!

Answer 4

There is more to the rule than just ' i before e except after c', but I can't remember the rest of it, as there are loads of words where this doesn't apply, reins for example.

Answer 5

Because most of those little reading rhymes are applicable less than 50% of the time. Gotta love the English language, huh?

Answer 6

science
i before e except after c

Answer 7

Because "know" has a silent "k" at the beginning......


American English makes rules and breaks rules because it borrows words from so many other languages.....languages which have rules of their own.
If English frustrates you then don't even think about learning Swahili ;)

Answer 8

Another adage: There's an exception for every rule. C'mon look at Einstein he gets it wrong TWICE!!
:P

Answer 9

because there are always exceptions to the rule. (the english lanuguage is full of exceptions, but since it's our 1st language a lot of times we don't realize it!)

Answer 10

i before e except after c unless it sounds like an a

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_spelie.html