Yeah, that's definitely a fair point. The people likely to use the rule probably aren't going to have a vocabulary of 350k or so words. As a followup I looked only at words contained within the Harry Potter series (http://www.nathancunn.com/2…. This should be reasonably representative of the vocabulary of kids who…

There are actually many examples: science, ancient, species, society, efficient, glacier.

This is a fair point, though the words included aren't actually as obscure as you would think, I'd almost guarantee you know every one of them.

Haha! Yes, my ctrl, c, and v keys have been getting a workout.

Hi, my original post just looked at the number of words without considering frequency. The words in question aren't as obscure as you'd expect though.

If you read the article, I literally introduce it by referencing a QI episode where they say this is the case. Much of the article is focused on some further exploration beyond just the "i before e" rule.

It actually doesn't affect how accurate the "except after c" bit is though. "cei" is the rule, and "cie" the exception regardless of pronunciation.

"If you "actually" click on the link THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE REFERS TO THE RULE."

It actually doesn't affect whether or not the 'except after c' rule is useful or not. If you have a word that contains 'cie' then it's an exception to the rule, whether it's pronounced 'A' or not.

It's missing the pretty pictures though!

Of all the comments, this is absolutely my favourite.