TYPICAL ERROR Our nieghbour saw a theif enter our house.
CORRECTION Our neighbour saw a thief enter our house.
EXPLANATION If you learn this simple rule, you will have few problems sorting out when to use ie and ei. (You may know the first line already, but that does not work on its own; the second line of the rhyme is essential.)
Put i before e except after c
If the sound that you need is ee as in bee.
If the sound that you need is ee as in bee.
Let us apply this rule to neighbour and thief. In thief we can hear the ee sound so we put i before e. In neighbour, however, we do not hear the ee sound (but rather an a sound) and so we don’t put i before e.
While the rule generally works if we use the second line, there are still some exceptions: for example, caffeine, counterfeit, seize, species and weird.
Insert ie or ei in these words.