You’re weird for writing “wierd…”

I was trying to be nice – I really was.  But since I failed miserably in that attempt, I will just stick to getting the point across .  Dear friends, weird is spelled weird, NOT wierd.  Yes, ei, NOT ie.  I don’t even know how to help you remember that.  Wierd just looks weird, no?

We all learned the “i before e except after c” rule.  That is, in words containing i and e together, i usually precedes e - as in friend, believe, thief, relieve, etc. – except when the vowels are followed by c, as in receive.  But words are not unlike disobedient children who don’t follow rules.  So, there are some exceptions.  I’d love to pretend that I have a long list of these memorized, but I don’t.  Here’s where your trusted dictionary comes in handy.  Check it if you have any doubts!  Seriously… and read, read, read – soon your eyes will be trained to spot the differences without even trying (see Read to Write for a little pep talk).  And no, unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t count as valid literature.  You see, Facebook is the catwalk of bad grammar… seems like everybody is airing out their dirty grammar laundry on their walls.  Unacceptable.  (Yes, as you can tell, this disturbs my equilibrium ever so slightly).

Check out my trusted friend Wiki for exceptions to the “i before e except after c” rule.  And if you have any friends who misspell weird, send them over to The Write Foot – I’m sure they’re polluting the grammar planet in other ways too