also be spelled ie, but only at the end of a morpheme as in die, pies, cried.) or (see weak-vowel merger) counterfeit, cuneiform*, foreign, forfeit, reveille*, sovereign, surfeit DRESS heifer, leisure*, nonpareil*, peignoir*. (This sound is spelled ie in the word friend.) TRAP reveille* NURSE O'Beirne e and i in separate segments (and often separate syllables or morphemes) Prefixes de- or re- before words starting with i (deindustrialize, reignite, etc.) Inflection -ing of those verbs with roots ending in -e that do not drop the e (being, seeing, swingeing, etc.) Others: albeit, atheism, cuneiform*, deify, deity, herein, nuclei, onomatopoeia Popular culture The rhyme is mentioned in several films and TV episodes about spelling bees, including A Boy Named Charlie Brown, The Simpsons episode "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", The Pen Is Mightier Than the Pencil episode of The Odd Couple, and an episode of Arthur; and also in the musical The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, when Huckleberry Finn is being taught how to read. The rhyme was used as a climactic plot device in the 1990 TaleSpin episode "Vowel Play" when Kit corrects Baloo's spelling by reciting the second half ("or when sounding like A, as in neighbour or weigh") of the mnemonic. I Before E (Except After C): Old-School Ways To Remember Stuff was a miscellany released in the UK for the Christmas 2007 "stocking filler" market, which sold well. "I Before E Except After C" is a song on Yazoo's 1982 album Upstairs at Eric's. The Jackson 5's 1970 hit "ABC" has the lyric "I before E except after C". "I before E except after C" was a 1963 episode of the TV series East Side/West Side. I Before E is the name of both a short-story collection by Sam Kieth and a music album by Carissa's Wierd, in each case alluding to the unusual spelling of the creator's name. Until the 1930s, Pierce City, Missouri was named "Peirce City", after Andrew Peirce. A 1982 attempt to revert to the original spelling was rejected by the United States Census Bureau. Comedian Brian Regan employs the rule in a joke on his debut CD Live in the track Stupid in School. Footnote References Sources Citations English orthography Mnemonics Rules of thumb Education controversies English-language education