ie and ei ..

i hate those words which have both ei's and ie's in them.. i never get when to use "ie" and when to use "ei".. thanks to auto correct features which often helps me out..

my chemistry prof once advised that if a word in which the "ie" pair sounds "e" then the "i" would precede "e", and if it sounds "i" then "e" would precede "i" and immediately cautioned there were numerous exceptions to this rule..

some examples which follow these rules are field, believe, rein etc..

i had some exceptions in my mind .. but its buried in somewhere