I before E?

Question

I do not know how my question was asked so badly. The Spelling rule I was trying to as was--is I Before E the rule in Spanish in most cases? It usually is in English with exceptions. I hope I was more clear this time. Thanks in Advance, LEO

Answer 1

"Spelling rule" is an oxymoron in English. That I-before-E-except-after-C "rule", like most spelling "rules" in English, only works half of the time. For example, IE appear after C in sufficient and science, and weird and foreign have the other order without the C.

In Spanish you have a letter for each symbol, except the H (no sound), and the digraphs LL and CH, which also follow a strict rule. You write E when you want the phonetic sound /e/, you write I when you want the sound /i/, and you write EI when you want an /e/ followed by an /i/ sounds in that order. If you hear the sound /i/ followed by the sound /e/, then write IE. Simple: read each letter one at a time. That's the only rule you need to know.

P.D. The phonetic sounds written with slashes are from International Phonetic Alphabet, not the pseudo-phonetic attempts that many English speakers use. /i/ sounds like the double E in "see", but shorter.

Buen dato. - Dakie, Apr 7, 2011

Answer 2

i before e except after c or when sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh is the way that I remember the rule. (back when I learned it in the Pliestocene Epoch)

I think the answer given was No it does not work in Spanish. Consider the word "seis"

[I don't think that the i in the diphthong is entirely silent...just stressed less than the e, so it doesn't fall under the as in weigh or neighbor exception]

link to your other thread to see answer given already (sarcastic natives always belittling our English language with its simplistic grammar rules ]

Answer 3

I read your last question and now I see other thing, I thought you had asked "if there are as many rules in Spanish as there are in English", I can swear that I saw that. Anyway Qfreed has already answered you although I am not sure about the "no-rule" thing, I actually can't think of other words with ei besides "seis" or any word that ends in "seis".

Where are you from? Do you not use vosotros: 2nd conjugation ER verb...eís? - 0074b507, Apr 6, 2011

Mexico City. Ok, I will forgive you (this time) :-) - 0074b507, Apr 6, 2011

That's what I was just about to say, conjugating in Spanish Spanish obviously there are a ton of ""verbs"" ""ending"" with "eis", but I don't think there are sustantives or adjetives, etc. - Dakie, Apr 6, 2011

Forgive me for being from Mexico City?, How come?. - Dakie, Apr 6, 2011

: D . - Dakie, Apr 6, 2011

I meant that it was an excuse for not knowing vosotros. - 0074b507, Apr 6, 2011

I certainly was belittling your Spanish when I can barely write a complete sentence. - 0074b507, Apr 6, 2011

reina, aceite, peinar, afeitar. . . - lorenzo9, Apr 7, 2011

Answer 4

That rule has been rejected and no one teaches it anymore, it turns out that in English E comes before I more often than I comes before E, and its proximity to C is irrelevant.

Unfortunately, because it rhymes, everyone remembers it.