Questions Asked by Users
How to know which words would be spelled with ‘ie’ and which with ‘ei’? Answered On :2013-06-15 , Asked By : satyapalsingh456

The general rule regarding this problem is - i before e except after c’

It means to say that in most words the spelling would be ‘ie’  - siege, believe, field, relief, etc.

However, in words where the alphabets are coming after ‘c’ in the word, then the correct spelling would be ‘ei’ -  deceive, ceiling, receipt, receive, conceit, etc.

There are exceptions to this rule where the spelling uses ‘ei’ even though the word does not contain a ‘c’ - seize, weird, neither, foreign, vein, etc.

The other exception is where words are spelt ‘ie’ even after ‘c’ - species, ancient, sufficient, etc.  

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