Page 71 - Improve_Your_Written_English [Marion_Field]

C H ECKING Y O U R S PEL LING / 57

‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’
This rule seems to have been made to be broken. Some
words keep to it but others break it. Here are some that
follow the rule. All of them are pronounced ‘ee’ – as in
‘seed’.

no ‘C’ in front after ‘C’
grief ceiling
niece deceive
piece receive

Exceptions to this rule are:

either, neighbours, vein, neither, seize, weird

AVOIDING COMMON MISTAKES
Because some words do not follow any rules, there are many
words in the English language that are frequently misspelled.
These words have to be learnt. Following is a list of the most
common:

absence abysmal acquaint acquire
accept across address advertisement
aggravate already alleluia ancient
annual appearance archaeology arrangement
auxiliary awkward because beginning
believe beautiful business character
carcass centre ceiling cemetery
cellar chameleon choose collar
committee computer condemn conscious
daily deceive definitely demonstrative
description desperate develop diarrhoea
difference dining disappear disappoint
discipline desperate dissatisfied doctor