Spelling worksheet focusing on the "ie" rule after "c," using the word "Alice" as a guide.

Let’s work through this step by step.

The worksheet is teaching the “i before e except after c” spelling rule — but with a twist: it says to use “ie” if there’s NO “c” before the /ee/ sound. The word “Alice” is given as an example — in “Alice”, the /ee/ sound comes after an “l”, not a “c”, so we write “ie”.

We are to fill in three columns for each word:

1. Letter before “ie” → What letter comes right before the “ie” in the word?
2. Is it a “c”? → Put an “X” if the letter before “ie” is NOT “c”. (So if it IS “c”, leave blank or put nothing? Looking at the first row: “thief” → letter before “ie” is “h”, which is not “c”, so they put “X”. So “X” means “not c”. If it IS “c”, then no X.)
3. Write The Word → Just copy the word correctly.

Let’s go row by row.

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thieves

- Letter before “ie”: “v” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: thieves

brief

- Letter before “ie”: “f” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: brief

grief

- Letter before “ie”: “f” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: grief

grieve

- Letter before “ie”: “v” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: grieve

believe

- Letter before “ie”: “v” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: believe

relief

- Letter before “ie”: “f” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: relief

achieve

- Letter before “ie”: “v” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: achieve

field

- Letter before “ie”: “l” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: field

shield

- Letter before “ie”: “l” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: shield

yield

- Letter before “ie”: “l” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: yield

piece

- Letter before “ie”: “c” → YES, it is “c” → so do NOT put “X”
- Write the word: piece

niece

- Letter before “ie”: “c” → YES, it is “c” → so do NOT put “X”
- Write the word: niece

priest

- Wait — “priest” has “ie”? Yes: p-r-i-e-s-t → “ie” is there.
- Letter before “ie”: “r” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: priest

shriek

- “shriek” → s-h-r-i-e-k → “ie” is there.
- Letter before “ie”: “r” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: shriek

siege

- “siege” → s-i-e-g-e → “ie” is there.
- Letter before “ie”: “s” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: siege

fierce

- “fierce” → f-i-e-r-c-e → “ie” is there.
- Letter before “ie”: “r” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: fierce

pierce

- “pierce” → p-i-e-r-c-e → “ie” is there.
- Letter before “ie”: “r” → not “c” → put “X”
- Write the word: pierce

Wait — let’s double-check “piece” and “niece” — those are the only ones where the letter before “ie” is “c”.

In “piece”: p-i-e-c-e → the “ie” is followed by “c”? No — actually, the “ie” is between “p” and “c”? Let’s spell it: P-I-E-C-E. So the letters are: P, I, E, C, E. The “ie” is the second and third letters. The letter BEFORE “ie” is... wait, “ie” is two letters. So what does “letter before ‘ie’” mean?

Looking back at the example: “thief” → T-H-I-E-F. The “ie” is the 3rd and 4th letters. The letter BEFORE “ie” is “H”. That makes sense — the letter immediately preceding the “i” in “ie”.

So for “piece”: P-I-E-C-E → “ie” is positions 2 and 3. The letter before “i” is “P”? But that doesn’t match the rule.

Wait — maybe I misread. Let’s look again at the instruction: “If there is no ‘c’ before the /e/ sound use ‘ie’”

And the table says: “Letter before ‘ie’”

In “thief”: T-H-I-E-F → the “ie” is together. The letter before the “i” is “H”.

In “piece”: P-I-E-C-E → the “ie” is together. The letter before the “i” is “P”. But that can’t be right because “piece” is spelled with “ie” even though there’s no “c” before it? But according to the rule, if there’s no “c” before the /ee/ sound, use “ie” — which is correct for “piece”.

But in “receive”, it’s “cei” — because “c” is before the /ee/ sound.

Ah! I think I misunderstood the table.

Let me re-read the header: “Letter before ‘ie’” — but in words like “piece”, the “ie” is not preceded by “c” — it’s preceded by “p”. But “piece” is spelled with “ie”, which follows the rule since there’s no “c” before the /ee/ sound.

But then why are “piece” and “niece” exceptions? They’re not — they follow the rule: no “c” before /ee/, so use “ie”.

Wait — perhaps the table is asking: in the word, when you have the /ee/ sound spelled as “ie”, what letter comes right before that “ie” combination?

For “thief”: /th/ + /ee/ + /f/ → the “ie” represents /ee/, and before it is “h”.

For “piece”: /p/ + /ee/ + /s/ + /e/ → the “ie” represents /ee/, and before it is “p”.

But then why would any word have “c” before “ie”? Like in “receive” — but “receive” is not on the list.

Looking at the words on the list:

- thief → h before ie → not c → X
- thieves → v before ie → not c → X
- brief → f before ie → not c → X
- grief → f before ie → not c → X
- grieve → v before ie → not c → X
- believe → v before ie → not c → X
- relief → f before ie → not c → X
- achieve → v before ie → not c → X
- field → l before ie → not c → X
- shield → l before ie → not c → X
- yield → l before ie → not c → X
- piece → c before ie? Let's see: p-i-e-c-e → the “ie” is i-e, then c. So after “ie” comes “c”, not before.

I think there's a mistake in my understanding.

Perhaps "letter before 'ie'" means the letter that comes before the 'i' in the 'ie' pair.

In "piece": the word is p-i-e-c-e. The 'i' is the second letter. The letter before 'i' is 'p'. So "p" before "ie".

But that doesn't help with the rule.

Let's look at the example given: "thief" -> letter before "ie" is "h", and it's not "c", so X.

Now, is there any word on the list where the letter before "ie" is "c"?

Let's check "niece": n-i-e-c-e -> letter before "i" is "n" -> not "c".

"piece": p-i-e-c-e -> letter before "i" is "p" -> not "c".

All of them seem to have non-"c" before "ie".

But that can't be, because the rule is "i before e except after c", so there should be words where "c" is before "ie".

Perhaps for "piece" and "niece", the "ie" is after "c"? No, in "piece", it's p-i-e-c-e, so "ie" is before "c".

I think I found the issue.

In some words, the "c" comes before the "ie" sound, but in the spelling, it's "cei", like in "receive", "deceive", etc.

But on this list, are there any such words?

Let's list the words again:

thief, thieves, brief, grief, grieve, believe, relief, achieve, field, shield, yield, piece, niece, priest, shriek, siege, fierce, pierce.

None of these have "cei" spelling.

For example, "fierce" is f-i-e-r-c-e — "ie" then "r" then "c".

"Pierce" is p-i-e-r-c-e — same thing.

So in all these words, the letter before the "i" in "ie" is not "c".

But then why are "piece" and "niece" included? They are standard "ie" words.

Perhaps the table is designed to show that for all these words, since there's no "c" before the /ee/ sound, we use "ie", and the "letter before 'ie'" is just to identify what letter is there, and "is it a 'c'?" is to confirm whether it's "c" or not.

In that case, for all words on this list, the letter before "ie" is not "c", so all should have "X" in the "Is it a 'c'?" column.

But that seems odd because the rule mentions "except after c", so there should be some words where it is "c".

Unless... let's think about "conscience" or something, but it's not on the list.

Perhaps for "piece", if we consider the sound, but no.

Another idea: in "niece", the "ie" is after "n", not "c".

I think I need to accept that for this particular list, all words have a non-"c" letter before "ie", so all get "X" in the third column.

But let's double-check "piece" and "niece" — is there a "c" before "ie"? In "piece", the "c" comes after "ie", not before.

So yes, for all words on this list, the letter before the "i" in "ie" is not "c".

Therefore, for every row, the "Is it a 'c'?" column should have "X", except possibly if there's a word where it is "c", but there isn't.

Wait, what about "friend"? Not on list.

Or "chief" — not on list.

So for this worksheet, all entries will have "X" in the "Is it a 'c'?" column.

But let's confirm with the first row: "thief" -> letter before "ie" is "h", is it "c"? No, so "X" — correct.

Similarly, for "piece": letter before "ie" is "p", is it "c"? No, so "X".

Same for "niece": "n" before "ie", not "c", so "X".

So all rows will have "X" in the third column.

Now, for the first column, "Letter before 'ie'", I need to write the actual letter.

For example:

- thieves: v
- brief: f
- grief: f
- grieve: v
- believe: v
- relief: f
- achieve: v
- field: l
- shield: l
- yield: l
- piece: p
- niece: n
- priest: r
- shriek: r
- siege: s
- fierce: r
- pierce: r

And the last column is just the word itself.

So let's compile the answer.

Final Answer:

| Word | Letter before "ie" | Is it a "c"? | Write The Word |
|----------|-------------------|--------------|----------------|
| thief | h | X | thief |
| thieves | v | X | thieves |
| brief | f | X | brief |
| grief | f | X | grief |
| grieve | v | X | grieve |
| believe | v | X | believe |
| relief | f | X | relief |
| achieve | v | X | achieve |
| field | l | X | field |
| shield | l | X | shield |
| yield | l | X | yield |
| piece | p | X | piece |
| niece | n | X | niece |
| priest | r | X | priest |
| shriek | r | X | shriek |
| siege | s | X | siege |
| fierce | r | X | fierce |
| pierce | r | X | pierce |

All "Is it a 'c'?" columns have "X" because none of the words have "c" immediately before the "ie" combination.