What is the difference between hard C and soft C?

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Usually, a c or g sound is hard or soft depending on the vowel that follows it. Here's the general rule: When c or g meets a, o, or u, its sound is hard. When c or g meets e, i, or y, its sound is soft.



Regarding this, what does a hard C sound like?

A soft "g" sounds more like a "j," as in the words large, general, and giant. By contrast, a hard "c" sounds like a "k," as in the words cup, class, and fact. A soft "c" sounds like an "s" as in city, receive, and cell.

Likewise, what type of sound is C? Voiceless palatal stop. The voiceless palatal stop or voiceless palatal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in some vocal languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ?c?, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is c .

Similarly, you may ask, what are soft c words?

Study the word list: Soft c

celebrate Let's celebrate this great occasion.
circus I object to animals performing in a circus.
sentence This is the tenth sentence of this test.
princess The daughter of a King is called a princess.
ice Take care not to skid on the ice.

What is the rule for soft C?

Usually, a c or g sound is hard or soft depending on the vowel that follows it. Here's the general rule: When c or g meets a, o, or u, its sound is hard. When c or g meets e, i, or y, its sound is soft.

28 Related Question Answers Found

What is the phonic sound of C?

The "Rule of c" covers the pronunciation of the letter "c", indicating when "c" stand for the /s/ sound. The rule is: The letter c represents /s/ before the letters e, i or y; otherwise it represents /c/.

How is C pronounced in English?

In English the letter 'c' is mostly pronounced as a /k/ sound. We can also pronounce 'c' as an /s/ sound.

What is the G rule?

The general rule is this: if the letter after 'g' is 'e', 'i' or 'y', the pronunciation is a 'soft g' as in 'fringe'. Any other letter that follows requires a 'hard' pronunciation of 'g' as in 'progress' and some more examples are: golf, pig, great, grasp and gum.

Why is C pronounced as S?

2 Answers. TLDR: Because Latin mostly first came to English through French, we picked up the French habit of pronouncing most Latin-derived words with ?ce? and ?ci? using /s/ or sometimes /?/, but never /k/. We also got into the habit of not changing spellings once established.

Why is C pronounced as K?


Because C sounds similar to K or S, depending on its usage. When the word begins with the letter C, we pronounce it as K. This can be very likely due to the way the letter phonetically resembles either K or S. Why are there "c", "k", and "ck" in English words even though they all have the same pronunciation?

How do you indicate a hard G sound?

English. In English orthography, the pronunciation of hard ?g? is /g/ and that of soft ?g? is /d?/; the French soft ?g?, /?/, survives in a number of French loanwords (e.g. regime, genre), [?] also sometimes occurs as an allophone of [d?] in some accents in certain words.

What words that start with C?

Words starting with c | Collins English Dictionary
  • c caa canny.
  • caa the feet frae cabildo.
  • Cabimas caboceer.
  • caboched caciquism.
  • cack cadastrally.
  • cadastre cadmium.
  • cadmium cell caesura.
  • caesurae Cagliostro.

What is the K and C rule?

We saw above that the letter c is usually used for a /k/ sound before the vowels a, o, and u, but if the /k/ sound is before the vowels e, i, or y. (When the k comes before a y, it is almost always at the end of words.)

Is Ch a soft c sound?

In Anglo-Saxon English C was pronounced "k" or "ch" then the French invaded in 1066 and introduced the soft C ("s" sound). Modern words follow this old rule: A soft c "s" before i, e or y - cinema, decide, celebrate, cemetery, cyber, cigarette, cylinder, centre/center, decision, cent, acceptance.

What are some soft G words?


Study the word list: soft g words
age She is very mature for her age.
Energy Energy is the strength or power to work.
manageable It was not manageable to do all the work in one day. *
rampage The dinosaurs went on a rampage through the forest. *
gigantic The Titanic was a gigantic ship.

What is the meaning of soft sound?

Something that is soft is very gentle and has no force. For example, a soft sound or voice is quiet and not harsh.

Is fungi pronounced with a hard or soft G?

fungus, fungi, funguses, fungal, fungic, fungous. Pronounced fuhng-guhs [IPA /ˈf?ŋg?s/] with a hard 'g' sound. Common mistake is mispronouncing it with a 'j' sound as fuhn-juhs.

What is soft word?

gentle, mild, warm-hearted, or compassionate: a soft, grandmotherly woman. smooth, soothing, or ingratiating: soft words.

What does a soft G sound like?

The hard sound of “g” occurs more frequently. Its sound is heard in gas, got, gum, etc. Soft "g" sounds like “j”. It is heard in gem, giant, gym, etc.

What words start with CE?


A list of words that start with Ce (words with the prefix Ce).

  • Ceanothus.
  • Ceasefire.
  • Ceaseless.
  • Cecropias.
  • Cedarbird.
  • Cedarwood.
  • Ceilinged.
  • Ceintures.

How many sounds does C make?

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols.
In the Latin-based orthographies of many European languages (including English), a distinction between hard and soft ?c? occurs in which ?c? represents two distinct phonemes.

What are consonant blends?

Consonant blends (also called consonant clusters) are groups of two or three consonants in words that makes a distinct consonant sound, such as “bl” or “spl.” Consonant digraphs include: bl, br, ch, ck, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gh, gl, gr, ng, ph, pl, pr, qu, sc, sh, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, th, tr, tw, wh, wr.