My Word #5

My Word for Today!     Thursday, February 05, 2009
Remember the saying “I before E except after C”??    My name is Keith so someone told me to add “or K or the sound of C”. That’s fine! But for years I’ve been feeling that the word “their” always looked wrong. Therefore, I decided to do a Google search for ‘I before E’.   I thought you might like to know what I found.
1) The word “their” actually fits the rule’s exception — Unless pronounced ‘ay’ as in ‘neighbor’ or ‘weigh’. 2) A cute poem highlights numerous others:

I Before E - A Prize Winning Poem

“I before E
Except after C,
Unless pronounced A
As in ‘neighbor’ or ‘weigh’”

Education is forfeit for reinforcing such rules!
Sound a feisty reveille while eyeing the schools!
Neither will our heirs be agreeing to deceptions
Once seeing, herein, these sufficient exceptions:

We were seized by a feeling
For fleeing on the ceiling
To a leisurely meal
With Keith, Sheila, and Neil

We drank Madeira, so foreign, in steins
Along with a surfeit of weird blueish wines
Being foolish, took codeine, ate ancient proteins
Therein guaranteeing these ogreish scenes