Spelling lesson of the day *

[nitram]

You're all bloody jokers lol.

Who am I to disagree with you Darling Kate.

[SteveB]

Who am I to disagree with you Darling Kate.

Now keep quiet.

[SteveB]

I look forward to tomorow's lesson;
affect and effect

[Curvaceous Kate]

I look forward to tomorow's lesson;
affect and effect

Oh gosh I've had so much trouble with this one over the years, but I'll give it a go.

[alcatel]

i before e, except after c.

Vital to know in this day and age.

[blue rebel]

i before e, except after c.

Vital to know in this day and age.

Not in all cases.

[SteveB]

i before e, except after c.

Vital to know in this day and age.

Not in all cases.

Sorry, apologies, but I couldn’t resist.
That is the rule, but English being English, as you say there are exceptions.
For example;

Agreeing, albeit, Alzheimer's, ancient, atheism, beige, Beijing, being, caffeine, concierge, deicide, deify, deign, deindustrialize, deity, disagreeing, dreeing, dreidel, eigen, eight, either, Fahrenheit, feign, feisty, foreign, foreseeing, forfeit, freight, geitost, gesundheit, heifer, height, heinous, heir, heist, herein, inveigle, kaleidoscope, keister, lei, leisure, Madeira, meiosis, neigh,neighbour, neither, obeisance, onomatopoeia, peine, poltergeist, protein, reign, reignite, reimburse, rein, reindeer, reindustrialize, reinforce, reinstall, reinvest, reisolate, reissue, safeish, scarabaeid, schlockmeister, science, seeing, seigniorial, seine, seismic, seize, sensei, sheik, skein, sleigh, sleight, sovereign, species, stein, surfeit, surveillance, their, theism, therein, veil, vein, weigh, weight, weir, weird, wherein, whereinto, xanthein, zeitgeist, zootheism.

Pity anyone learning it as a foreign language.
"ei" is rare except when used after "c" to form "cei";
"cie" is more rare (it occurs mostly in the plural of nouns ending "-cy" such as efficiency).
The rule has several exceptions, including when the "ei" makes the long "a" sound such as in "neighbour," "weigh," or "beige."

[alcatel]

i before e, except after c.

Vital to know in this day and age.

The convention/idea with this, is that it relates to a select number of words that rhyme with each other and look a bit alike.
Believe
Receive
Conceive
Relieve

This is how I always understood it, and it's probably mainly aimed at primary school children.
It is useful to spell a few common words like receive, believe.
But some guy in the internet age (very possibly American) didn't understand this and decided to trawl the dictionary for words outside the pertinent few.
The same guy probably started the claptrap about irony (or its lack) in the famous Alanis Morissette song.

[nitram]

Now keep quiet.

Say it with symbols

Thunderbirds are old, very old