Thanks, polymath! I think I'm at the losing my mind place. Or maybe I passed it awhile back. :)polymath wrote:"I before E except after C or when sounded like A as in neighbor and weigh." Is the mnenonic I learned in grammar school. But there are numerous exceptions to the rule. Height, ancient, species, etc. Achieve follows the main rule, I before E.Mira wrote: I also confuse ie with ei ALL the time. Is it achieve or acheive? They both look right to me.
Exercise is correct. Restaurant, but restaurateur.
What can I say? English is a living language. It got more lively with the Internet and follow-on digital technology. Middle Twentieth century social change also radically affected language. I've got a hundred years of dictionary installments on my reference shelves for keeping abreast. Noah Webster pretty much standardized U.S. Standard Written English at the beginning of the Nineteenth century and it stayed that way until the beginning of the Twentieth. Then it started slowly evolving again, major bumps middle century and century's end. Texting is having a major impact. A noun that's become a verb: text, texting, texted, etc. And all the bleeping acronyms and punctuation smilies. Squirrely capitalizations and compounded words to keep abreast of . . . I'd lose my mind if it weren't so fascinating how language adapts and evolves.
I'm voting for a new "dartboard" menality of grammar. If it's in the vicinity of the circle on the dartboard, it counts!