User talk:WaterIce

Uhh Hullo!

40 % ?

Just so you know, the "i" before "e" except after "c" rule works for about 40% of the words in the english langauge. So, please, do not try to say that it is a rule. WaterIce 15:51, 08 November 2005 (PST)

Do you have any proof of this? Like a reputable source ? BTW, English is always capitalized. StuRat 00:14, 9 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I found one that says it works for 82% of the words... Can't find the excact site that I found that listed many more than this one... But this is the only site I have as of now, I will do some more research on it and get back to you tomorow on the 40% that I read about... http://thepp.org/stuff/i_before_e_except_after_c.html WaterIce 16:38, 08 November 2005 (PST)

Ok, but 82% seems good enough to qualify as "a rule" to me. English, being an inexact collection of words from many languages, doesn't have too many rules that apply more than that. For example, the "slap an S on the end to make a plural" rule has got to be less than 82% accurate. Still, if I encounter a new word, I would try to put an S on the end to make it plural. StuRat 00:49, 9 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've talked to my english professor, and she says that she recieved information that it works only 40% of the time. Aparently there is a million words in the english language, five hundred thousand normal words and five hundred thousand scientific words. So, the site I saw that had only one hundred eighty thousand words was completely off. I take my professor's word on this subject because it is what she teaches and most professors do not teach what isn't correct when it comes to the English langauge. WaterIce 11:48, 13 November 2005 (PST)

That is an appeal to authority argument that is sometimes called a logical fallacy. I would encourage you to be more skeptical about what you are told, even when by supposed experts. Also, languages are an example of the long tail phenomenon, where a few words are used quite often and most of the words are rarely used. Any discussion of English rules should therefore be heavily weighted towards the more common words, which sounds like the case in the 82% figure but not for the 40% figure. Approximately 60,000 words are used in common conversation, so most of those million words are quite obscure, I'm sure. StuRat 06:40, 20 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]