I before e except after c and when sounding like a as in neighbor and weigh, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY!

-- Brian Regan

Just remember:

I before E except after c but not when your conscientious scientist foreign neighbors Keith and Heidi Einstein seize their eight counterfeit reindeer heifer sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters of average height in a heist and deigns to reimburse the concierge. WEIRD.

Receive inherited the "ei" from French. Retrieve was "e" only, switched to "i" only, and then went to both, all after it was already in English.

A lot of the crazy spelling in English is either because of old French or because medieval/Renaissance scholars found out about Latin and decided they wanted some of it for themselves.

English is not a serious language

English makes WAY more sense when you learn the etymology of words. Multiple languages in a trench coat is totally accurate. Usually, if the spelling is all fucky and doesn't make sense, it's from French... Or sometimes Latin. Although Latin makes more sense than French.

You can learn about spelling rules at your leisure but it might cause a seizure.

i before e except after c