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This just in: the English language has posted a response. ‘We are a tough language. We freely admit this. However, we refuse to take any responsibility for Keith. His unusual… predilections are not related to us.’
On protein supplements
I before E except after C, and when sounding like A as in “neighbor” and “weigh”, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you’ll NEVER be right no matter WHAT you say!
CAT. K A T. I’m outta here.
(I know there’s two Ts)
This “rule” is a crime against teaching. It pretends to be helpful but mostly just tattoos misinformation on mugs and confuses kids. Weird, neighbor, weigh, seize, caffeine, leisure, height… English has so many exceptions.
This was the biggest lie they taught us.
I mean DARE was right up there.
The “except after c” rule is for when the vowels make a long “e” sound.
Honestly, if you’ve got a sense for when it applies (of the words in the blurb, only Keith and counterfeit are actually exceptions), it can be pretty helpful. I learned this:
I before e except after c
Or when sounding like a as in neighbor and weigh
And weird’s weird!
And it applies only to words with an e sound that isn’t a diphthong, and not to words that are recent arrivals from other languages. If you’re using it to try to spell “hacienda,” it’s worthless. If you’re using it to figure out “conceited,” it’ll help.
What species were they?
Once had a substitute teacher so stupid she marked “weird” as being spelled wrong
Weirdo
Can anyone explain what’s “i before e”?
It’s a general pattern someone noticed and then rhymed, that ⟨ie⟩ is more likely to appear than ⟨ei⟩ in English, except after ⟨c⟩. But it is not a real rule, there’s no orthographic restriction behind that pattern, not even an underlying phonemic reason. So you’re bound to see exceptions everywhere, to the point the pattern is useless as a mnemonic.
I before E except after C
And when sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh
And on weekends and holidays and all throughout May
And you’ll always be wrong no matter WHAT YOU SAY
Heh, onlu rule in English: Memorize them all!
It isn’t often I see Brian Regan bits in the wild. The same thing came to mind.
Rules for English that aren’t absolute.
I before e except after c. Which obviously is not totally accurate.
Thanks for the link. Explains why I never heard of it, it’s more or less useless. Though English spelling has many problems, not just this.
If this was an exhaustive list (and I believe it isn’t), “weird” should’ve been part of the previous sentence.
Glad I never learned it. I mean, I know the words but never internalized them so I don’t use it. Happy accidents, I guess?
I completely get the joke, but it didn’t need to be made. It certainly didn’t need to be printed on a mug, shipped from another country, and been posted wherever it was posted originally, then reposted here.
I completely understand this comment, but it didn’t need to be made. It certainly didn’t need to be typed into a comment box, posted to the lemmy.world instance, and then federated across the fediverse, then shown here.
It’s too sexy for this comment
Too sexy for this comment
It doesn’t need a rhyme.
AND they’re wearing a gold ring! Imagine the atrocious chain of events for that too!
Get off my lawn ;-)
These days, it’s “didn’t need an unfathomable quantity of compute resource to AI slop it into an image meme”.
