یک تکنیک ساده برای هجی کردن

1 Simple Spelling Tip

Hello! I’m Emma from mmmEnglish! Spelling mistakes can be anything from a minor embarrassment to a failed exam. And actually, spelling is one area where native English speakers commonly make mistakes too. They can definitely make improvements! Since English is not phonetic, it takes years and years for native English speakers to learn how to spell words correctly and even when we finish school, there are often a few words that keep confusing us all the way through adulthood. In this lesson, we’ll look carefully at the spelling of words that include ie and ei.

Okay, let’s take a look at these words achieve, believe and peace. Now these words are sometimes misspelled like this, with E before I. And it’s an easy mistake to make. In fact, phonetically, it kind of makes more sense. Words with I and E or E and I often cause spelling headaches.

Still to this day, I remember the little rhyme that my grade two teacher taught me, “I before E except after C” which is a really handy way of remembering the spelling of these words. The letter combination, ie, is more common than ei. It just appears more. In fact, ei is quite rare really. But there are some very common everyday words that use ei. And many of them follow a C, like the verb receive.

It’s a perfect example of I before E except after C. Receipt is another, ceiling, deceive, preconceive. So that little rhyme, it’s useful … sometimes. But if you live your life by this rule, you’ll make spelling mistakes for sure! So as always, there are exceptions. I feel like English is the language of exceptions. In actual fact, the rule “I before E, except after C” usually is only relevant when the vowel sound represented by the ie is the long E sound.

Receive. Receipt. Ceiling. Deceive. Preconceive. Okay, now are you ready for the exceptions? Words like ancient, efficient and science, sufficient are exceptions to the rule. “I before E except after C” doesn’t work here.

And that’s because the vowel sound represented by ie is not E. Ancient. Efficient. Science. Sufficient. And the ei combination can follow other consonants, not just C. Their. Foreign. Weird. Leisure. Height. Neighbour. Weigh. Vein. And feisty. How is it possible that this little combination of letters is so difficult? ie or ei - it’s the source of confusion for English learners and many, many native English speakers too.

So if you’re having trouble with these spelling rules keep this lesson in mind. The “I before E, except after C” rule is a really, really helpful rule to remember. But it only really applies when the ie is pronounced as E. Well I hope that you got some handy tips out of this lesson.