Hard and Soft Sounds

As a kid I knew the letters ‘c’ and ‘g’ had hard and soft sounds. I just didn’t know there was a rule that would help me. My go-to word was garage. The first ‘g’ was followed by the letter ‘a’ and had a hard sound. The last ‘g’ was followed by an ‘e’ and had a soft sound. Today’s post will discuss spelling and pronunciation rules to help you pronounce new words and spell old ones.

Hard C and G

The most common sound for the letter ‘c’ is the hard sound. Cat, cost, cut, cry, Christmas, and clip all start with the hard ‘c’ sound. Maniac, titanic, and rock end with the hard ‘c’ sound. The rules for beginning and middle sounds are different from ending sounds. For beginning and middle sounds, when the vowels a, o, u, or most consonants follow the ‘c’ then it will make the hard sound (‘h’ and ‘y’ can be exceptions-more on that later). A word ending with the letter ‘c’ is almost always a hard sound. If the final vowel of the last syllable is a short vowel the spelling rule is to end in ck. Here are some examples: stock and stoke, and rack and rake.

The most common sound for the letter ‘g’ is the hard sound. Garter, goat, gut, glamor, and grim all start with the hard ‘g’ sound. Tag, beg, pig, cog, and rug end with the hard ‘g’ sound.  If the vowels a,o,u, or most consonants follow the letter ‘g’ it will make the hard sound.

Soft C and G

Often, the letter ‘c’ sounds like an /s/ and the letter ‘g’ sounds like a /j/. We call these soft sounds. How on earth is a person supposed to know how to spell these words? Fortunately, there is a spelling rule to help you. If a letter ‘c’ or ‘g’ is followed by the vowels e, i, or y it is pronounced with the soft sound. Here are some examples: cent, cinnamon, cyborg, special, science, germ, giraffe, gypsy, agent, margin.

Exceptions

As with any rule in English there are exceptions to the hard and soft sounds rule. When the letter ‘h’ follows the letter ‘c’ it makes a new sound like the beginning of cherry. However, the group of letters chr (as in Christmas) will always begin with the hard ‘c’ sound. Other exceptions are the words get and girl. I call these outlaw words because they don’t follow the rule.

Pronunciation Tips

I like sweet pickles. My favorites are the mini gherkins. How is that pronounced? What about ghetto, guest, and guilt? These all start with the hard ‘g’ sound. In gherkin and ghetto, the ‘h’ separates the ‘g’ from the vowel ‘e’ which tells me the ‘g’ is hard. In guest and guilt, the letter ‘u’ acts as a buffer and lets me know to pronounce the hard ‘g’ sound.

I hope this post will help you spell familiar words and pronounce new ones.