British government spells end of 'i before e' rule

[ccharles000]

It's a spelling mantra that generations of schoolchildren have learned _ "i before e, except after c."

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

The "Support For Spelling" document, which is being sent to thousands of primary schools, says the rule "is not worth teaching" because it doesn't account for words like 'sufficient,' 'veil' and 'their.'

Jack Bovill of the Spelling Society, which advocates simplified spelling, said Saturday he agreed with the decision.

But supporters say the ditty has value because it is one of the few language rules that most people remember.

http://roadrunner.com/home/home/article/rr/9000/8114305/British_government_spells_end_of_i_before_e_rule

[knowbody0]

1. how bout Colonel?

cud u pls ask them to fix this while they are at it.

thank you

[ZombieHorde]

2. English sucks. nt

[WeDidIt]

3. 'i before e, except after c, WHEN THE SOUND IS LONG E!'

Except for Recieve (and other forms of the word).

'e before i when the sound is long a as in neighbor and weigh.'

[alfredo]

4. Screw that, blame it on your spell checker.

[Hannah Bell]

16. "'I' before 'E', except after 'C', or when sounded like 'A,' as in 'neighbor' & 'weigh'".

That's how I learned it.

[johnaries]

23. EXACTLY! Works every time. Of course,

if you don't know the difference between "there" and "their"...

[Frank Cannon]

29. Surely there must be some weird exception to this rule. n/t

[dsc]

32. sufficient and recieve both would be exceptions

[Crabby Appleton]

33. heifer

[Hannah Bell]

34. it's "receive". see, if you'd used the rule...:>)

[Jazzgirl]

37. How about "weird"?

n/t

[Left Is Write]

39. Yes, I think that was the point of Frank's post.

;)

[malaise]

26. Same here n/t

[JackRiddler]

43. Weird.

[scarletwoman]

5. Great. They want their children to be just as ignorant as Americans.

The "exceptions" cited are ridiculous -- when the sound is a long "a" as in "veil", "neighbor", "weigh", it's not THAT complicated to teach that the "e" comes before the "i".

In the case of "their", all you have to remember is that it's a tense of the word "they" -- therefore the "e" naturally follows the "th".

There is actually plenty of logic to the English language if you understand the etymology, and the etymology is really fascinating! Why don't they teach THAT instead dumbing kids down? :grr:

sw

[Deja Q]

7. Because the time it takes to incite learning isn't cost-effective.

[scarletwoman]

12. Yeah, who needs learning when you're destined for corporate serfhood anyway. (nt)

[TahitiNut]

6. Let's weigh a sleigh of fiends, friends, and neighbors.

:dunce:

[beac]

21. What you do at your holiday parties is your own business, but keep it to yourself , weirdo.

;)

[kentuck]

8. You don't have to be Einstein to know that...

:-)

[rug]

9. Fine, right after they fix Worcestershire.

[johnaries]

24. I LOVE Worcestershire! Enhances a steak's flavor instead of

covering it up.

[NV Whino]

10. Nooooooo!

Say it isn't so!

[izquierdista]

11. A horrible language to spell

Second only to the worst language of all time, French. Both of these snooty languages need to come down off their high horse and have a well thought out plan to conform the spelling to the actual modern day pronunciation. Languages where this has been done have seen an increase in literacy (not too bad a problem in England and France, I'll admit) and it cuts the problems with dyslexia to almost none. But where to start? If you think the health insurance lobby had the country tied up in knots, wait until you try to take on the schoolmarms and anal-retentive grammarians.

[Midwestern Democrat]

27. I had a professor from Germany who once remarked that in Germany

the idea of holding a "Spelling Bee" would be unfathomable - the German language has such precise spelling/pronunciation rules that such a contest would be pointless.

[ccharles000]

13. kick

[MADem]

14. Oh, bullshit. It's a great rule. Learn the exceptions, and buck up! nt

[sandnsea]

15. or when sounding like "a" as in neighbor and sleigh

ient is a suffix.

Now this kind of dumbing down is truly scary.

[Forkboy]

17. "No, Brian. It's 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!"

[TCJ70]

19. That's a hard rule...

[Forkboy]

20. LOL

My 2nd favorite comedian after Eddie Izzard. :)

[RandomThoughts]

18. I always thought it meant something else.

Eye before E(5?) except after see(or sea)

Neighbor and weigh. Two other things that sort of match the flow of that thought.

[Odin2005]

22. English has got to have the most fucked up orthography on the planet

It represents the pronunciation of English as it was 600 years ago and interpreted by Norman-French scribes. Screw that!


If I was put in charge of reforming English spelling my topic line would be spelled thusly:

"Ingglish haz got tuw hav ðu mowst fukt up orþografiy on ðu planut."

"It repriyzents ðu prownunsiyashun uv Ingglish speling az it wuz 600 yiyrz ugow and intrpritid bay Norman-French skraybz. Skruw ðat!"

[Number23]

25. I'll care when they pronounce the word "schedule" the way the Good Lord intended

[underpants]

28. Thier decieved

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. 'neighbour' has been misspelled 7 times in this thread

So I'm not listening to those people.

:evilgrin:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

38. And there's no defence for their doing that!

;)

[ThomWV]

31. One fucking rule I can remember and agree to obey, and now they want to shitcan it?

[Fozzledick]

35. It's a weird science!

[ccharles000]

41. I agree

[Lydia Leftcoast]

36. What I've noticed about Brits is that they tend to be either

excellent writers or practically illiterate. Very little in between. You should see some of the e-mails I got in response to requests for B&B reservations on my two recent trips.

[hootinholler]

40. I like George Carlin's solution

Make an e looking i and an i looking e and put the dot in the middle.

-Hoot

[Marsala]

42. Bah, the British don't even know how to spell "color" n/t

[Hekate]

44. I just want them to take the "ugh" out of English: though, through, cough ...

... although, bough, cough, dough, enough, plough, rough, slough, thorough, through, tough, trough ... and no doubt more.

Hekate

[6000eliot]

45. The problem with all of these "rules" is that when English spelling was regularized,

the English language SOUNDED different. The "K" and the "GH" in the word "knight" were all pronounced at one time, so the word sounded like "keneekt." There is no such thing as a "silent" letter.

[yorgatron]

46. DUPE!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5894511&mesg_id=5894511