This section lists exceptions to the basic form; many will not be exceptions to the augmented forms. The word oneiromancies (studies into the meaning of dreams) breaks the rule twice, in both ways. The words deficiencies, efficiencies, sufficiencies, zeitgeist and einsteinium break the rule twice in the same way.
[edit]cie
Some groups of words have cie:
Inflections of words ending -cy (fancied, policies, etc.)
science and related words (conscience, prescient, etc.)
Other words ending -cient -ciency (ancient,efficiency, etc.)
Suffixes -ier or -iety after a root ending in -c: financier glacier society
[edit]ei not preceded by c
Some groups of words have ei:
Chemical names ending in -ein or -eine (caffeine, casein, codeine, phenolphthalein, phthalein, protein, etc.)
Many proper names (Breidi, Keith, Leith, Neill, Sheila, etc.)
Scottish English words (deil, deid, weill, etc.)
Prefixes de- or re- before words starting with i (deindustrialize, reignite, etc.)
Inflection -ing after verbs those ending in e which do not drop the e (being, seeing, swingeing, etc.)
Miscellaneous others: in the following lists, words are grouped by the sound corresponding to ei in the spelling. An asterisk* after a word indicates the pronunciation implied is one of several found. Most derived forms are omitted; for example, as well as seize, there exists disseize and seizure.
[e?]
these exceptions are excluded by the American version: beige, cleidoic, deign, dreidel, eight, feign, feint, freight, geisha, gleization, gneiss, greige, greisen, heigh-ho*, heinous*, inveigle*, neigh, neighbo(u)r, obeisance*, peignoir*, reign, rein, seiche, seidel, seine, sheikh*, sleigh, surveillance, veil, vein, weigh
eir as [??] (rhotic) or [??(?)] (non-rhotic)
these exceptions are excluded by the American version: heir, their
these exceptions are the only ones that slip through the strictest interpretation of the British version: either*, heinous*, inveigle*, keister, leisure*, monteith, neither*, obeisance*, seize, seizin, sheikh*, specie, teiid
or <img src=icon_smile_question.gif border=0 align=middle>, depending on happy tensing
these exceptions may slip through the British version: species
eir as [??] (rhotic) or [??(?)] (non-rhotic)
these exceptions may slip through the British version: weir, weird
[a?]
eider, either*, einsteinium, feisty, heigh-ho*, height, heist, kaleidoscope, leitmotiv, neither*, Rotweiller, seismic, zeitgeist
<img src=icon_smile_question.gif border=0 align=middle>
counterfeit forfeit surfeit
<img src=icon_smile_question.gif border=0 align=middle> or <img src=icon_smile_question.gif border=0 align=middle>, depending on weak vowel merger
foreign, reveille*, sovereign
<img src=icon_smile_question.gif border=0 align=middle>
heifer, leisure*, peignoir*
[æ]
reveille*
e and i in separate segments
albeit, atheism, deify, deity, onomatopoeia