“I” before “E” except after “C” …

August 20, 2007 by 4 Comments

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: , ,

Related posts:

  1. My definition of “software design archeology” and “software anthropology”
  2. In the car, on the bus, revisited
Filed Under: Education

Comments

  1. jananaphone says
    August 20, 2007 at 11:51 pm

    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.”

    Reply
  2. Joe Grossberg says
    August 21, 2007 at 9:12 am

    You mean “weigh”, not “weighs”, since “inadequacies” is a plural subject.

    Reply
  3. Dossy says
    August 21, 2007 at 9:34 am

    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.

    Reply
  4. Dossy says
    August 21, 2007 at 9:54 am

    Joe: Yeah, you’re right, it should be “weigh” … which makes the sentence seem even more bizarre than it already is. :-)

    Reply

Speak Your Mind

*