Re:Tacit Knowledge Is Dangerous
by Izkata on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @03:43PM
(#38618195)
> Like "i" before "e", except after "c"?
> While "i" does come before "e" nearly 75% of the time—even after "c" it is a probabilistic rule and not particularly useful.
That's only the first part of the rhyme. The second part is "or when sounded like 'a' as in 'neighbor' or 'weigh'", which handles most of those exceptions.
There's even a third part I remember hearing once, but can't remember it now.
Most English spelling/pronunciation rules are never explicitly taught, but they do exist - it's why "ghoti" isn't pronounced the same as "fish", to get that pronunciation you have to break at least two rules.
Years ago I found a page that listed like 40 or so English pronunciation rules that had to do with combinations of characters and where they appeared in words, it was really thorough and I wish I'd kept a link to it.
> While "i" does come before "e" nearly 75% of the time—even after "c" it is a probabilistic rule and not particularly useful.
That's only the first part of the rhyme. The second part is "or when sounded like 'a' as in 'neighbor' or 'weigh'", which handles most of those exceptions.
There's even a third part I remember hearing once, but can't remember it now.
Most English spelling/pronunciation rules are never explicitly taught, but they do exist - it's why "ghoti" isn't pronounced the same as "fish", to get that pronunciation you have to break at least two rules.
Years ago I found a page that listed like 40 or so English pronunciation rules that had to do with combinations of characters and where they appeared in words, it was really thorough and I wish I'd kept a link to it.