In all honesty, we’re always a little nervous when describing anything as a ‘spelling rule’ in English, since they’re often actually ‘vague guidelines’. Nevertheless, the phrase ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ can help you to avoid some common errors.
The rhyme ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ is designed to help with the spelling of a various words in English. Generally, it applies best to words featuring a long ‘e’ sound (pronounced ‘ee’).
For example, while ‘believe’ is spelled with an ‘-ie-’, ‘deceive’ (where the ‘ee’ sound comes after a ‘c’) is spelled with an ‘-ei-’. Others include:
‘-ie-’ (No ‘c’)
‘-ei-’ (After ‘c’)
Achieve
Perceive
Diesel
Ceiling
Thief
Receipt
Piece
Receive
However, this doesn’t work for other terms containing ‘-ie-’ or ‘-ei-’. This includes many words that feature these letter combinations but aren’t pronounced with an ‘ee’ sound, such as:
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It also includes a lot of comparatives and superlatives (e.g. ‘fancier’ and ‘fanciest’) and some words with ‘-ing’ suffixes (e.g. ‘cueing’ or ‘agreeing’).
Even more confusingly, some common words do contain an ‘ee’ sound and yet still don’t fit the ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ rule:
These complications are nicely spelled out (excuse the pun) in a longer version of the rule made up by the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
I before e, except after c Or when sounded as ‘a’ as in ‘neighbour’ and ‘weigh’ Unless the ‘c’ is part of a ‘sh’ sound as in ‘glacier’ Or it appears in comparatives and superlatives like ‘fancier’ And also except when the vowels are sounded as ‘e’ as in ‘seize’ Or ‘i’ as in ‘height’ Or also in ‘-ing’ inflections ending in ‘-e’ as in ‘cueing’ Or in compound words as in ‘albeit’ Or occasionally in technical words with strong etymological links to their parent languages as in ‘cuneiform’ Or in other numerous and random exceptions such as ‘science’, ‘forfeit’, and ‘weird’.
And, as they point out, this doesn’t even rhyme.
Consequently, although ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ can be useful for spelling some words, it is often a matter of practice!
Checking online or getting your work proofread is a good idea if you’re unsure about particular words.
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