ie- or -ei-

ie- or -ei-
Sometimes it is difficult to remember whether a word is spelled with -ie- or -ei-. There is a very simple rule about this:
• I before E
Except after C
Rule Examples
I before E achieve, believe, brief, chief, friend, grief, hygiene, patience, pierce, priest, thief
Except after C ceiling, conceit, conceive, deceit, deceive, perceive, receipt, receive
Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule.
1. When the sound rhymes with "may", the spelling is -ei-:
• beige, feint, freight, inveigle, neighbour, sleigh, vein, weigh, weight
2. Here are a few more common exceptions:
• either, neither, caffeine, codeine, counterfeit, foreign, forfeit, height, leisure, protein, their, weird, seize, seizure