4 ms·

> Because ie is pronounced aye in English Grief? Tier? Thief?

• WalterBright 4y ago
  English spelling always has exceptions, partly because so many words come from foreign languages. The word "thief", for example, comes from an Old German word.
  • thechao 4y ago
    Knight: pronounced similar to the Monty Python sketch. In fact a lot of "weird" English orthography is just dialectic drift after orthographic ossification.
  • wizofaus 4y ago
    List of ie words sorted by commonness (*): https://onelook.com/?w=*ie*&scwo=1&sswo=1&ssbp=1 https://onelook.com/?w=*ie*&scwo=1&sswo=1&ssbp=1 Not sure I'd be in a rush to say "aye" was the default pronunciation. At best it may be marginally the single most common one. (*) meaning the number of dictionaries the word is found in, not frequency of usage.