Posted: Dec 12, 2010 5:39 am
I've never tried to prove it but I'm fairly confident that every rule in written english will have at least one exception to it.
Well everything has exceptions, but the point is WHY is it ei and not ie? Why aren't they all just the same? Is there any actual legitimate reason?
Why is the "ough" combo used to make about a million different sounds? In the place name Loughborough it's used twice and makes different sounds in the same word! WHY? WHY? It makes no sense.
Do normal people just remember every single spelling of every word? They must do, since thee is no way of working any of it out.