You have my vote, anarchistmitter.

They missed the last part of the rhyme, though.

i before e
except after c
or when sounding like "a"
as in neighbor or weigh

So, really, of the "exceptions" they gave to the rule, only one out of the three is still an exception: sufficient

Vanetia

of the "exceptions" they gave to the rule, only one out of the three is still an exception: sufficient

I must be drunker than I thought, because I counted six exceptions, only one of which might be pronounced as "a," and that only by an officious prig.

So thier trolling the grammer Nazi's?

null

So thier trolling the grammer Nazi's?

I vass never a Nazi! NEVER!!

A brown shirt, maybe, but never a Nazi!!!

That's weird.

I take exception to that headline.

Ei c what you did theire.

that headline hurt my brain

Wei shall never surrender.

they'll talk about this right after science class

Vanetia: They missed the last part of the rhyme, though.

i before e
except after c
or when sounding like "a"
as in neighbor or weigh


And on weekends and holidays and all throughout May

/Brian Regan

null - So Sew thier trolling the grammer Nazi's?

/ficksed

double plus not good

Budweiser

Poor subby. If it weren't for this business with the Iranians, you'd be the top voted link right now. Instead, you're at about 15.

Wisenheimer.

So, now Old MacDonald goes "I-E-I-E-O"?

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru! And zen world!

> So, now Old MacDonald goes "I-E-I-E-O"?

No, it'll still be "E-I-E-I-O" but the children won't know why.

"i" before "e"
except after "c"
or when sounded like "a"
as in "neighbor" and "weigh"
With these nine exceptions:
Either, neither, counterfeit, forfeit, foreign, leisure, height, seize, weird.

A real headline would have included all of the exceptions.

Really getting a kick out of these replies.

oldebayer: You have my vote, anarchistmitter.

I had to cancel TotalFark because it was bad for my information addiction, but I don't suppose anyone has a screenshot of this voting stuff?

I once had an 'I before E' discussion with a former coworker named Justis (Farkers might know her better under her blog name: Barbie Cummings.) She was kidding me about my name, Keith. "It's supposed to be I before E. Don't you even know how to spell?"

So I said "Look who's talking. What kind of name is Justis? That's not a name. That's someone who forgot to put a space in between two words."

She didn't bother me about how my named is spelled after that.

oldebayer: Vanetia

of the "exceptions" they gave to the rule, only one out of the three is still an exception: sufficient

I must be drunker than I thought, because I counted six exceptions, only one of which might be pronounced as "a," and that only by an officious prig.

"veil" should be pronounced with an "a" sound. "their" originally was pronounced that way, but it has devolved due to being slightly too difficult to pronounce.

I could only find 3 words listed in the article. Weird.

Pretty good, subby.

FTFA: But new British government guidance tells teachers not to pass on the rule to students, because there are too many exceptions.

Because no other English spelling rule has any exceptions.

English orthography sucks.

rosonowski: I had to cancel TotalFark because it was bad for my information addiction, but I don't suppose anyone has a screenshot of this voting stuff?

??? You don't see the votes at the top of the thread???

I submitted this with a much worse headline yesterday.

/oh well

the_cnidarian: weird

Grr!

Keith agrees

I always thought it was "I before E unless after C or it's weird"

Doesn't rhyme though...

There are a skein of exceptions.

This rule made my life miserable. Now I have spell check.

Neicley done, Subby! Love it

Their deities are also two exceptions. Right?
/didn't see them mentioned above.

Keith and Sheila felt weird by the weir.

thelordofcheese

So the spelling, most likely reformed grammar, nazis are taking over all of Europe at once huh?

/If I kuld award zem, I vuld avard 9 (NINE) intervebs to yu.
//Almost makes me wanna start a chain e-mail..

hmmm, "i" before "e" except for "c"....that's weird.

Where can I get this shirt?!

the_cnidarian: That's weird.

I came here to say that subby should've used the tag.

i before e
except after c
or when sounding like "a"
as in neighbor or weigh

So, really, of the "exceptions" they gave to the rule, only one out of the three is still an exception: sufficient

Weird.

Ivo Shandor: the_cnidarian: That's weird.

I came here to say that subby should've used the tag.

Touchei.

Charlie Brown disapproves (new window)

English, Mofarker, do you spell it?

I-before-E C what you did there, subby. Much better than my headline.

I always remember the ditty to end with ... except for Heineken. I don't recall if that was my own substitution or some teacher somewhere...

no, no, no. it's:

"i" before "e"
except after "c"
or when sounded like "a"
as in "neighbor" and "weigh"
and on weekends and holdiday's and all throughout May
and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say.

-at least according to my latest copy of Regan.