'EI' or 'IE'? Quiz

This..	Word	..or this?
ambience..		..or ambeince?
ancient..		..or anceint?
athiest..		..or atheist?
buddliea..		..or buddleia?
caffiene..		..or caffeine?
cieling..		..or ceiling?
concieve..		..or conceive?
counterfiet..		..or counterfeit?
decieve..		..or deceive?
diesel..		..or deisel?
diety..		..or deity?
foriegn..		..or foreign?
glacier..		..or glaceir?
hieght..		..or height?
hiest..		..or heist?
kaliedoscope..		..or kaleidoscope?

This..	Word	..or this?
liesure..		..or leisure?
mieosis..		..or meiosis?
nieghbour..		..or neighbour?
niether..		..or neither?
onomatopoiea..		..or onomatopoeia?
protien..		..or protein?
reciept..		..or receipt?
science..		..or sceince?
siesmic..		..or seismic?
siezure..		..or seizure?
sliegh..		..or sleigh?
society..		..or soceity?
soldier..		..or soldeir?
soveriegn..		..or sovereign?
species..		..or speceis?
wierd..		..or weird?
ambience..	..or weird?
ancient..	..or weird?
athiest..	..or weird?
buddliea..	..or weird?
caffiene..	..or weird?
cieling..	..or weird?
concieve..	..or weird?
counterfiet..	..or weird?
decieve..	..or weird?
diesel..	..or weird?
diety..	..or weird?
foriegn..	..or weird?
glacier..	..or weird?
hieght..	..or weird?
hiest..	..or weird?
kaliedoscope..	..or weird?
liesure..	..or weird?
mieosis..	..or weird?
nieghbour..	..or weird?
niether..	..or weird?
onomatopoiea..	..or weird?
protien..	..or weird?
reciept..	..or weird?
science..	..or weird?
siesmic..	..or weird?
siezure..	..or weird?
sliegh..	..or weird?
society..	..or weird?
soldier..	..or weird?
soveriegn..	..or weird?
species..	..or weird?
wierd..	..or weird?

Javascript is not currently enabled on your browser.
If you do have Javascript enabled:
This site uses javascript to make the magic happen.
Please turn on javascript and reload this page, or use a more current browser (like Firefox)

You might also like these games:
The Keyboard Alphabet	Word Chain Labyrinth	Every 6 Letter Word (A-M)

There are 55 comments for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)

'EI' or 'IE'? Quiz

by wiggytitch

Created Jun 4, 2011 in Language
Featured Apr 28, 2013
Game Plays 30,290

Embed Game

Report a Mistake

Friend Scores and Standings

Loading friend results....

Top Games Today in Language

Top Games with Similar Tags

Top User Games in Language

Archived comments: show them

	Ubbiebubbie:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 15:03 GMT		58 points
	"I before E, except after C, except in Mark Teixeira or in any of these other words that clearly do not fit into that pattern."

Comment below threshold: show it

	megascarp:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 15:20 GMT		67 points
	lol...or anyone else know ceiling because cieling just looks totally wrong?

	Rackie:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 15:21 GMT		89 points
	"diety" - a word used to describe salad?

	naqwerty3:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 15:41 GMT		71 points
	Why don't we learn the rule as "I before E except when a feisty heist of weird foreign neighbors seize beige caffeine for protein in Brunei."

	Strummer174:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 15:59 GMT		30 points
	If you asked me to spell any of these words independently, I could do it in a heartbeat with no problem, but when you line them all up and keep switching from ei to ie words, I keep second-guessing and getting confused. Very cool (scary?) to see how impressionable my little brain is.

	henrib:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 16:03 GMT		26 points
	"I before E except after C, or when sounding like A as in neighbor or weigh, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong, no matter WHAT you say!" - Brian Regan

	beforever:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 16:06 GMT		79 points
	Just in case any of you are like me... buddleia - (n.) A widely cultivated shrub with fragrant lilac, white, or yellow flowers.

	Lexistential:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 16:47 GMT		11 points
	Curse you, buddleia!

	Xolotl123:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 16:49 GMT		20 points
	There are actually more exceptions to the rule "i before e except after c" than there are followers. - QI

Comment below threshold: show it

	ReidLightFan:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 17:08 GMT		15 points
	Yeah, I saw that on QI. The rul is NO longer being taught in schools. There are 921 words spelt cie, which doesn't obey the rule, 21 times the amount of those words which are spelt cei.

	mccabebabe:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 17:32 GMT		4 points
	that was awesome naqwerty3

	funnyfavorer101:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 17:44 GMT		5 points
	@ReidLightFan: So... there are 43.85714285714286 words that are 'cei'? (Yes, I know, it's rounded) :)

	ezois:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 17:45 GMT		2 points
	Weird is a weird word. I noticed that if the word is otherwise spelled wrong it just sits there. Good thing. Like when I put the ei in the right place in seizure but tried to spell it with an s instead of a z.

	Starstruck:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 17:57 GMT		6 points
	I have honestly no idea how any English-speaking person can get one of these wrong. I'm from Finland and I didn't hesitate even once.

	object_holder:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 18:01 GMT		7 points
	"I before E except after C" works decently as long as you're talking about the sound "ee." There are some exceptions (protein, caffeine, weird, seize), but not a lot. Once you include other vowel sounds, it's totally useless.

	dancastro:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 18:03 GMT		7 points
	@chrono: do you mean buddleia? It's a plant (see three comments above yours). I'd never seen the word before, but it sounded to me like a botanical genus named after a person's last name (like Dahlia, Fuchsia or Camellia) and therefore the ending -eia was much more likely than -iea. (I'd never seen the name Buddle either, but again, it looked like an English surname, so "buddleia" made sense while "buddliea" didn't).

	dancastro:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 18:20 GMT		19 points
	@Starstruck: probably the explanation is that you (like me and thousands more of Sporclers), not having English as their native language, are much more exposed to the written form of words than to the spoken one; for native speakers (or foreigners living in an English-speaking country) it's the other way around. Of course I can misspell an English word, but it's much more likely that I mispronounce one. Fortunately that doesn't matter for Sporcle quizzes.

	Aukyboy:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 18:26 GMT		27 points
	This one made me laugh: which is correct, neither or niether? Answer: neither...

	rillab:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 19:15 GMT		3 points
	Actually I had no problem to spell any of these, but I wonder how to pronounce half of them. Well, I learnt English in school. :)

	randomguess:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 20:20 GMT		10 points
	Seeing so many ie/ei words together makes even the correct ones look fake.

	gamer2000:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 20:40 GMT		6 points
	Thank you dancastro for that explanation. I'm one of those born-english-speaking and we DO find it indeed rather jumbling to our brains. We ALL know how to spell DEITY but for some weird reason when rushed tend to put that letter i first. Same with many of the other words. I started in a rush and botched it so badly I had to start over and give them more thought :)

Comment below threshold: show it

	biziclop:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 20:48 GMT		7 points
	@dancastro: Not only that, we learned to speak and write at the same time, which makes the link between the image and the sound of a word much stronger.

	ecstein:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 21:50 GMT		3 points
	...or neighbor. #murica

	dcmldcml:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 21:51 GMT		9 points
	I think it took me longer to find the ie/ei in onomatopoeia than it took me to figure it out.

	armadilloking:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 22:37 GMT		3 points
	Neither leisured foreign counterfeiter could seize either weird height without forfeiting protein

	dizzygothica:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 23:17 GMT		1 point
	@starstruck - yes, but that's because Finland has one of the world's best school systems. The rest of us (the younger generation, anyway) in the English-speaking world have been saddled, for a couple of decades, with systems which increasingly ignore teaching spelling and grammar in case they injure the kids' psyches by telling them (god forbid) that anything they have done is wrong! We now have international/exchange students, whose first language is not English, topping their English classes!

	irishailish:	Apr 28th, 2013 at 23:54 GMT		5 points
	I found that it was easier to glance quickly at what word I had to spell because by looking at the alternate spellings I over-thought the whole thing and got very confused :P

	vendorsfan1:	Apr 29th, 2013 at 00:17 GMT		1 point
	Neighbour or Nieghbour? Neither.

	mcearlgrey:	Apr 29th, 2013 at 00:26 GMT		4 points
	Worth it just to learn the word "buddleia." I'm sure I've never seen it in print before. All I could think of was Amelia Bedelia.

	sportitude:	Apr 29th, 2013 at 02:13 GMT		2 points
	far too many ei's not enough ie's

	beforever:	Apr 29th, 2013 at 02:51 GMT		4 points
	While I usually have found your comments disagreeable, sportitude, I actually thought the same. Still a fun quiz, though - and that long line of eis probably throws off a lot of people who may be trying to beat the system and anticipate how 'random' ei's and ie's are going to be when really it isn't split 50%/50% for ten words in a row.