EI and IE

For a note on how AWE organizes its group of articles on vowels, basically by aspects of sound and of writing, see category:vowels.

EI and IE.

The digraphs ei and ie (as in receive and believe) cause confusion in spelling. The dictum ‘i before e except after c’ holds good for nearly all words where the sound is long e (‘ee’ as in seen), as with conceive, deceive, perceive. There are some exceptions with ie after c (such as species), and some words with ie after c where the pronunciation is not ‘ee’ (as with ancient and glacier). There are some 30 words with ei not after c but pronounced ‘ee’, such as protein, seize, weird.