I before E except after C

That is the kind of errant pedantry, up with which I will not put. (and, no, Sir Winston probably is not the origin of this)

weir' and 'weird' are the only counter-examples that I can think of.

Seize. And depending on your pronunciation, (n)either and leisure.

lol shilgia!
and nutrax, indeed he was to blame usually!

There is a huge thunderstorm with hail going on now after 10 hours of 40C!

Talking of prepositions, many years ago I came across a sentence that ended with a string of eleven such (I think), the last two being "Down Under" (not strictly a preposition etc. but never mind). Anyone know it and can remind me?

#13 :"What did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?" Not eleven, and not down under, but not bad.

#3: Sorry, but "sieze" is incorrect. It is "seize".

SEIZE. SEIZE. SEIZE. That's me hitting myself over the head with a lump hammer. I used to know how to spell...

And this is probably the sentence that babygiraffe #13 is thinking of:
"What did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of about Down Under up for?"
Which of course is a total swindle. For instance, I could write a book about this silly sentence, which would then be a book about "to out of about Down Under up for". And then you could say:
"What did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of about "to out of about Down Under up for" up for?"
And so on.

If you've ever studied French it's easy to remember the spelling of seize, because it's the same as the French word for 17.

We learned it as "I before E except after C, or when sounded like A as in neighbor or weigh."

I learnt it as: 'When the sound is "ee", i before e except after c.'

Seize is 16 not 17, #16 :-)

Seize is 16 not 17, #16 :-)

Thanks; I apologize for my error. I mentally went through the last three kings - Louis Quatorze, Louis Louis Quinze, Louis Seize - but had some kind of mental seizure and wrote 17.