"I" before "E" except after "C" ...
Kids are taught a cute little tip to help them spell words that goes like this: "I" before "E" except after "C". But, then, how do you explain this:
"It is weird how the inadequacies of science weigh so heavily on our society."
Yeah.
Tags: English, language, spelling
It's accurate, if I'm not mistaken, roughly half of the time. Though I wouldn't really use "inadequacies" as an example, seeing as it's only a pluralisation of "inadequacy."
You mean "weigh", not "weighs", since "inadequacies" is a plural subject.
So, knowing the "I before E except after C" thing vs. arbitrarily guessing--which yields a 50% chance of being right, which is equivalent to "I before E except after C" being right half the time--doesn't really help.
I suspect that most common words, the 300-400 that are in the typical average person's limited vocabulary, do follow the "I before E except after C" hint.
