--- title: i before e, silent letters and other famous traps — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «i before e, silent letters and other famous traps», a lesson of the english course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The old rhyme says «i before e except after c». --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/) / i before e, silent letters and other f… # i before e, silent letters and other famous traps Lesson 10 of the english course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/0/) — The old rhyme says «i before e except after c». - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/3/) — Many ei words say /ay/: eight, weigh, neighbour. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/4/) — Silent letters are fossils of old speech. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/6/) — The way people spoke changed, but the spelling stayed. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/8/) — Not every silent letter used to be spoken. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/10/) — A story like that is a great memory hook. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/11/) — Some words are traps even for grown-ups. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/12/) — «Friend» is an ie word that breaks the /ee/ rule, so learn it with a trick: a friend to the end. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/13/) — «February» has an r that many people skip in speech, so say «Feb-RU-ary» in your head when you write it. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/15/) — The wise approach: use the full rhyme only for /ee/, learn silent letters in groups (kn, wr, mb, gn), and keep a short list of the famous oddballs. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/16/) — «i before e except after c» works mainly for the /ee/ sound: believe, field, receive, ceiling. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/19/) — Many ei words make the /ay/ sound: eight, weigh, neighbour; the rhyme does not cover them. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/20/) — Silent letters often show how words were said long ago: the k in «knife» was once spoken. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/21/) — Common silent-letter groups: kn (knife, knee), wr (write, wrong), mb (lamb, climb, thumb), gn (gnome). - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/22/) — The s in «island» was added by scholars who wrongly linked the word to Latin «insula»; it was never spoken. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/23/) — «Wednesday» comes from «Woden's day» and keeps a d most people do not say; saying «Wed-nes-day» in your head helps you spell it. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/27/) — «Neighbour» is the British spelling, with ei for /ay/ and an -our ending; American English writes «neighbor». - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/10-i-before-e-silent-letters-and-famous-traps/28/) — Slang in this lesson: «wicked» means very in New England; «delulu» means delusional, far from reality; «innit» means «isn't it» or «right?». - ← previous: [Suffixes -ous, -ly, -ful, -less, -ness, -ment](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/9-suffixes-ous-ly-ful-less-ness-ment/) - next →: [Homophones and near-homophones](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/11-homophones-and-near-homophones/) - ↑ back to [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/)