hard and soft sounds of ‘c’ and 'g

A Pronunciation Lesson

Rita Simons Santiago, Instructor

HARD AND SOFT SOUNDS OF ‘C’ AND ‘G’

If the letter following the ‘C’ is ‘E’, ‘I’ or ‘Y’, the pronunciation is said to be “soft”.

A soft ‘C’ is pronounced ‘s’ as in cell, city, decision, receive, license, distance, recently, pronounce, juicy, cylinder

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

If the following letter is anything else - including a space - the pronunciation is termed “hard”.

A hard ‘C’ is pronounced ‘k’ as in call, correct, cup, cross, class, rescue, fact, public, panic, ache

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

Music Video: Hard and Soft C

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

If the letter following the ‘G’ is ‘E’, ‘I’ or ‘Y’, the pronunciation is said to be “soft”.

A soft ‘G’ is pronounced ‘j’ as in general, giant, gymnastic, large, energy, intelligible, changing

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

If the following letter is anything else - including a space - the pronunciation is termed “hard”.

A hard ‘G’ is pronounced ‘g’ as in golf, pig, great, gum, fragrant, grasp, glut, progress

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

The Hard and Soft ‘G’

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

There are a few interesting words that include both hard and soft sounds. Some examples include:

success, circulate clearance, bicycle, vacancy, garage gauge, geography, gigantic, gorgeous

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

When a ‘hard’ pronunciation is wanted, but the following letter would make it ‘soft’, we sometimes add ‘h’ after ‘c’ (as in ‘architect’) or ‘u’ after ‘g’ (as in ‘guest’). Alternatively, the following letter is doubled (as in ‘outrigger’).

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

These rules also explain some difficult spellings. ‘George’ and ‘guest’ and ‘trigger’ could not be spelled ‘Gorge’ or ‘gest’ or ‘triger’ and still retain their pronunciation.

Also, it can now be seen why ‘sag/rag’ and ‘sage/rage’ are spelled and pronounced the way they are.

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

Nothing is easy - so there are some exceptions to these rules. These mostly involve giving ‘hard’ pronunciation to words where the rule indicates the ‘soft’ sound. These exceptions include:

gear, get, gelding, give girl gift tiger, celt

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

Other exceptions are foreign words that have been adopted into the English language, such as:

gestalt and geisha

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

For more practice with the soft and hard ‘c’ and ‘g,’visit :

Mixed Hard and Soft  ’C’ + ‘G’ Interactive Practice Activities

Electric Company Games

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

This majority of this material (unless otherwise noted) can be found in its original format at:

About.com

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’

Next week we’ll look at the ‘G’ following the letter ‘N.’

Hard and Soft Sound of ‘C’ and ‘G’