Tay Ray Chuan home archive

English: "ei" vs "ie"

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 15:36:37 +0800 | Filed under dvorak keyboard, english

I had taken down some notes on my computer. While reading through them, I noticed that I had made quite a few spelling errors of the "ei" sequence and had typed "ie" instead, eg. "decieve" instead of "deceive".

This might be because, having placed my finger above the "i" in anticipation of the "i" letter, I was too eager and depressed the key. One would need to anticipate the "i" character, because on the Dvorak keyboard, both "e" and "i" are on the homerow, but "i" is "outside" of the 4 left keys and takes slightly more effort to reach.

This made me wonder: for which words would you have to take care when spelling "ei"? Some googling led to this page, which laid out this "rule":

I before E
except after C
or when sounding like AY
as in neighbour and weigh

Interesting. (Of course, there are exceptions; see the page for details.)

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