<P> A Dictionary of Modern English Usage discusses "i before e except after c". Henry Watson Fowler's original 1926 edition called the rule "very useful", restricting it to words with the "long e" sound, stating further that "words in which that sound is not invariable, as either, neither, inveigle, do not come under it", and calling seize "an important exception". The entry was retained in Ernest Gowers's 1965 revision . Robert Burchfield rewrote it for the 1996 edition, stating' the rule can helpfully be extended "except when the word is pronounced with / eɪ /"', and giving a longer list of exceptions, including words excluded from Fowler's interpretation . Robert Allen's 2008 pocket edition states, "The traditional spelling rule' i before e except after c' should be extended to include the statement' when the combination is pronounced - ee -"'. Jeremy Butterfield's 2015 edition suggests both "when...pronounced - ee -" and "except when...pronounced - ay -" as extensions to the rhyme, as well as listing various classes of exception . </P> <P> In 1932 Leonard B. Wheat examined the rules and word lists found in various American elementary school spelling books . He calculated that, of the 3,876 words listed, 128 had ei or ie in the spelling; of these, 83 conformed to I - before - E, 6 to except - after - C, and 12 to sounded - like - A. He found 14 words with i-e in separate syllables, and 2 with e-i in separate syllables . This left 11 "irregular" words: 3 with cie (ancient, conscience, efficiency) and 8 with ei (either, foreign, foreigner, height, leisure, neither, seize, their). Wheat concluded, "If it were not for the fact that the jingle of the rule makes it easy to remember (although not necessarily easy to apply), the writer would recommend that the rule be reduced to' I usually comes before e,' or that it be discarded entirely". </P> <P> Sandra Wilde in 1990 claimed the sounded - like - E version of the rule was one of only two sound--letter correspondence rules worth teaching in elementary schools . The rule was covered by five of nine software programs for spelling education studied by Barbara Mullock in 2012 . </P> <P> Edward Carney's 1994 Survey of English Spelling describes the ("long - e" version of the) rule as "peculiar": </P>

When does i before e except after c not apply