Topic: Monkeys and the FT

[chriswg]

I wouldn't recommend watching QI then. Apparently 'i' before 'e' except after 'c' can't be taught anymore because there are actually more (albeit less common) examples where the opposite is true

[Razor]

I wouldn't recommend watching QI then. Apparently 'i' before 'e' except after 'c' can't be taught anymore because there are actually more (albeit less common) examples where the opposite is true

Chris, I also saw that episode, brilliant

Ray

[Peripatetic Phil]

Apparently 'i' before 'e' except after 'c' can't be taught any more because there are actually more (albeit less common) examples where the opposite is true

More examples than what, Chris ?  More than there were when I was at school ?  More than are commonly taught ?  I would certainly wager a quite significant sum that there are fewer words containing "ei" in that order than there are words containing "ie", and that the "ie"-words outnumber the "ei" words by a factor of about six to one ...

** Phil.

[Razor]

Phil,

Even after 'C' ?

[Les]

Phil,

Even after 'C' ?

Back to your cooking pot, Troublemaker ;D

Les

[bamble1976]

From the QI website:

I have to declare an interest here, since the fact of there being 21 times as many words which break the "rule" as obey it came from me. (Using a Scrabble word list, and with technical help from my stepdaughter and from Davini994, who used to be a regular on these forums.)

And what we found was 923 words which have <cie>, 2,606 words which have <ei> after something other than <c>, and just 167 words which really do have <cei>. (Of which only six are really in everyday use.)Regards

Barry

[Peripatetic Phil]

Ah, so it is the "except after 'c'" that is central here.  I hadn't appreciated that.  I had thought that someone was asserting that there are more "ei" words than "ie" words, which I am 99.999% certain is false (by a factor of about six).  But how many "cei"s there are as opposed to "'not-ce'is", I have no idea !

** Phil.