Hard and Soft C & G Pronunciation

Improve your English pronunciation effortlessly with our quick guide to mastering C & G sounds. Learn the difference, practice with examples, and boost your spoken English skills today!

Pronunciation

Practice how to pronounce C and G.

Transcript

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Introduction:

Host: Hello and welcome to the English Magnet. Today’s video: Hard and Soft C & G Made Easy! Ever wondered why the letter C in “cat” and “cent” don’t sound the same, or why the letter G in “go” and “gem” also sound different? The curious case of the dynamic duo: C and G. An odd duality, but nothing we can’t address in a clear and concise way. Let’s clarify all this right now. 

Part 1: Hard & Soft

The letters C and G in English have two different pronunciations each due to the influence of the surrounding letters. This is related to the concept of “hard” and “soft” sounds. Let’s cover the rules and then special cases which are rather numerous. 

Part 2: Hard C & G

Hard C sounds like /k/. When the letter C is followed by the vowels a, o, or u, or in a blend (cl or cr), it typically makes a “k” sound. Hard C is also used when C is the last letter of a word. For example: camel, course, cube, clean & acrobatic.

Hard G sounds like /g/. Same rules as with hard C; when the letter G is followed by the vowels a, o, or u, or in a blend (gl or gr), it generally makes a “g” sound. Hard G is also used when G is the last letter of a word. For example: gasoline, government, argue, glass, gravity & bug.

Part 3: Soft C & G

Soft C sounds like /s/.  When the letter C is followed by the vowels e, i, or y, it usually makes an “s” sound. For instance: century, city & recycle. 

Soft G sounds like /j/. Again just like with C, when the letter G is followed by the vowels e, i, or y, it often makes a “j” sound. For instance: orange, giraffe & biology. 

Part 4: Special Cases

The rules are pretty clear, but now let’s go over the main exceptions to polish up your pronunciation 🙂 

Case 1: CC & GG

Here double consonants can be tricky. CC sounds like a single /k/ when it falls under the hard C rule (accusation, acclimate, occasion). However, CC sounds like two distinct sounds /k/ /s/ when the 2nd C falls under the soft C rule. So, hard C followed by soft C (accept, accident, coccyx). GG follows the same pattern; a single /g/ under hard G rule (aggressive, beggar, maggot). It rarely falls outside the hard G pronunciation, just keep in mind (suggest) with /g/ /j/ and exaggerate a single /j/. 

Case 2: CH & NG

Quick note on CH and NG, they’re neither a hard nor a soft C or G. They have their own thing going, we’ll address it in due time. 

Case 3: Adding a suffix beginning with e, i oy y  (-ed, -er, -ing, -y, …)

Please note that many words ending with a hard G will retain the hard G sound even if an added suffix beginning with a soft vowel is added. Like in bagged, bigger, hugging, piggy). These words have a soft vowel (e,i or y) after GG but they keep their /g/ sound from the root words (bag, big, hug, pig). 

Case 4: -GE from French words used in English 

Some words of French origin have maintained their [ʒ] pronunciation. It’s an uncommon sound in English, it’s the sound of the letter S in pleasure or vision. Some borrowed words from French use that pronunciation instead of /j/  like in beige, camouflage, garage, genre, regime (GI), rouge, sabotage.

Case 5: Some miscellaneous exceptions 

Some regular everyday words just break the rule and you have to remember them. Luckily or unluckily, some are super common words: Hard G /g/ for these: give, gift, girl, geese, gecko, together, get, tiger, finger, bagel, Soft G /j/ for algae. Hard C /k/ for these: soccer, Celt, Soft C /s/ for these: Caesar, flaccid. Yes it’s normal to feel some anger… Can you name more? 

Part 5: Recap

In short, a great rule of thumb is to use hard C /k/ or hard G /g/ after a, o, u. In a blend (cl, cr, gl, & gr) and at the end of a word as well. 

Soft C /s/ and soft G /j/  after e, i, y.  

From time to time you’ll stumble upon an exception. Just try to incorporate it into your vocabulary, and besides they’re great conversation starters… just kidding 😉 

Wrap up

• Host: So, there you have it! Hard and Soft C & G; two letters with two distinct sounds. If you’re in the mood, be sure to watch more of our videos! Hopefully, this has been helpful. A link to some free material to practice by yourselves can be found in the description below. Keep practicing, and you’ll get the hang of it. Thank you for watching. Until next time!