Just saw this and filed it under the category of why spelling is so hard for so many of us:
The formula is I before E except after C or when pronounced like A as in anchor or way.
But all those words don't fit the formula do they.
Our language can be so nonsensical! I see it all the time watching the little one learning to read and learning the rules of spelling. Why do we even have a letter c? The sounds it makes are already made by s and k. Ch could be its own letter if necessary. So pointless.
Having studied multiple other languages, English, especially as spoken by 'Murkins, is a real be-atch! Most languages have pretty strict rules of pronunciation for any particular letter, or they add some demarcation to indicate a variation in pronunciation.
I've heard that English was one of the most difficult languages to learn because of our synonyms and homonyms and other things like that. I mentioned that on another forum though and got an earful.
Well whoever gave you an earful about that was nowhere near as smart as you are. English is much more difficult to learn than most commonly spoken languages. Here's just a few reasons:
- The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
- We must polish the Polish furniture.
- He could lead if he would get the lead out.
- The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
- Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
- A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
- When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
- I did not object to the object.
- The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
- There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
- They were too close to the door to close it.
- The buck does funny things when does are present.
- A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
- To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
- The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
- After a number of injections my jaw got number.
- Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
- I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
- How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
- The accountant at the music store records records of the records.
- The bandage was wound around the wound.
- The farm was used to produce produce.
And we say thing backwards from most other common languages. The embarrassing thing is that a lot more people from other countries are far more likely to be fluent in more than one language than we Americans are and more people from other countries learn to speak English than we learn to speak their languages. And our concept of singular and plural is mystifying and follows no rules.
Such as this:
Now if mouse in the plural should be, and is, mice,
Then house in the plural, of course, should be hice,
And grouse should be grice and spouse should be spice
And by the same token should blouse become blice.
And consider the goose with its plural of geese;
Then a double caboose should be called a cabeese,
And noose should be neese and moose should be meese
And if mama’s papoose should be twins, it’s papeese.
Then if one thing is that, while some more is called those,
Then more than one hat, I assume, would be hose,
And gnat would be gnose and pat would be pose,
And likewise the plural of rat would be rose.
Or this:
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox should be oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I spoke of my foot and showed you my feet,
When I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
So plurals in English, I think you’ll agree,
Are indeed very tricky, singularly
