Which of these words is spelled incorrectly because it violates the rules for ie versus ei words or exceptions to those rules?

Answer 1

The "i" before "e" rule is almost never fully stated in its entirety. The complete rule goes like this: "I" before "E" except after C, or when sounded like "I" as in the words Einstein, height, sleight, stein.

or "A" as in the words neighbor, weigh, sleigh, heir, their. The rule can get even wordier if you want to include this section:

"Neither, weird, foreign, leisure, seize, forfeit are common exceptions spelled right

But don't let the C-I-E-N words get you uptight." These C-I-E-N words include Science, Ancient, Sufficient. There are no C-E-I-N words in the English language. Also to note, depending on how you pronounce "neither" it may not be an exception. So in addition to those exceptions mentioned in the wordier addition to the rule, these are a few other exceptions:

Protein, caffeine, heifer, codeine, counterfeit, either, sovereign, and surfeit.

Proper names don't have to necessarily follow any rules.