LexBrew
Spelling Entry 1373 / 1605 60-second read

Foreign vs. Foriegn

E before I — another exception.

The comparisoni

✗ Wrong

A foriegn country.

✓ Correct

A foreign country — FOREIGN spells E-I-G-N. Like SEIZE and WEIRD, this breaks the "I before E" rule.

The ruleii

FOR + EIGN.

FOREIGN, SOVEREIGN, REIGN, FEIGN — all keep -EIGN endings (silent G in REIGN). The E-before-I exception cluster is small and worth memorising as a group.

Memory aidiii

Remember it like this

reIGN, sovereIGN, foreIGN.

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