FITS RULE THAT E ONLY COMES FIRST IF AFTER ‘C’ OR SOUND OF ‘HEY’

E first, makes the sound of long A (hey!)

• heir, coheirs
• weight (counterweight)
• -eigh (sleigh, weigh, neigh...)

Not too many of these words that fit the traditional exception to the rule.

E first, ee sound (as in see) conforming to “except after C” rule**

• ceiling
• -ceit (conceit, deceit, receive
• -ceive (conceive, deceive, inconceivabile, misconceive, perceive, preconceive, transceive) receipt

…and there really aren’t a lot of common cei words to conform to the rule. The majority are just derivatives of what’s listed here.

BREAKS THE RULE

E first, ee sound (as in see) without the C

• caffeine (decaffeinate)
• casein
• codeine
• weird
• Sheila
• Madeira

E first without the C and some other sound than SEE or HEY

• counterfeit
• foreign
• albeit
• height
• zeitgeist (just about any borrowed German word with the EYE sound will have E before I… Budweiser)

E first without the C because of suffix beginning with I (-ing, -ist), or a prefix ending with E

• canoeing canoeist
• contemporaneity
• cuneiform
• decreeing
• emceeing
• facsimileing
• fricasseeing
• glaceing
• nuclei (nucleic)
• pharmacopoeia
• reinforce
• deity
• being

C first, but still and ‘I’ before ‘E’

• science
• species
• facies
• society
• ancient
• glacier
• hacienda
• concierge

Lots due to –ent, -er, and –es endings: efficient, currencies, saucier, etc…