
The words on the exceptions list are greater than the list of words that adhere to the rule.
Stupid rule.
Like …
I before E except when your foreign neighbor Keith receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters. Weird.
More exceptions – forfeit, glacier, and seize.
Merriam-Webster
For a bit more of an explanation, see Merriam-Webster’s I before E.
Best advice?
Just look it up in the dictionary.
Here’s a fun video from Ben Knight.
*****
A dragon-sized thank you to Shawn MacKenzie who has been editing and proofreading all these SpewagE blogs since I started them September 5, 2021. Shawn is the author of The Dragon Keeper’s Handbook, Dragons for Beginners, Llewellyn’s Little Book of Dragons, and the upcoming Tarot of Dragons (about which you’ll be hearing more in the months to come), as well as numerous other fictions and essays.