Hi, Anton! Recently you wrote in a message to Dallas Hinton:
I before E is the rule.
Except when your foreign neighbour Keith receives
eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated
weightlifters.
Fie! This rule is neither friend not fiend to the learner.
Exactly. Native speakers often make jokes about how "illogical" the spelling is in English... but a lot depends on one's preferred learning style.
For those who want rules I'd point out that there's more to this one than they may consciously recall. It's not so hard if you enjoy learning what makes people tick & realize +/- half of our language was borrowed from various parts of northern Europe & Scandinavia. Dallas & I grew up with words such as "gesundheit" & "Fahrenheit", which may have given us a head start. Anyone can make a point of using a dictionary which includes the etymology, though. :-))
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)