In the English language, some letters can be used in different contexts to produce two different types of speech sounds (phonemes). These phonemes are termed as hard and soft sounds. These letters can be very tricky when we pronounce a word containing these letters because of their dual phonemes.
Generally, consonants like ‘c’ and ‘g’ have two different sounds, a hard sound as well as a soft sound.
Hard and Soft ‘g’
A hard sound of g can sound like the letter /g/ such as in words good, grab and pig whereas a soft g sound can be like the letter /j/ such as in words general, giant, and gorge.
Hard and Soft ‘c’
A hard phoneme of the letter c gives a sound similar to /k/ such as in words cut, class, and cast whereas the soft phoneme can give a sound like /s/ such as in words essence, city, and cell.
These are some examples of hard and soft sounds of two consonants. Some simple rules are there that can decide about the sound of ‘c’ and ‘g’ i.e. either it should be hard or soft.
Rules for hard & soft sounds
Usually, the soft and hard sounds of the letter c and g depend upon vowels that follow them.
1. If the letter ‘c’ or ‘g’ is followed by any of these letters i, e or y then a soft sound of c and g is produced. This soft sound of c and g seems like the speech sound of /s/ and /j/ respectively. Here are some examples of such cases.
g+i — origin, magic, engine || c+i — cite, decide, citizen
g+e — germ, general, large, page || c+e — center, census, essence
g+y — gym, astrology, gyrate || c+y — cycle, cell, city
2. If the letter ‘c’ or ‘g’ is followed by the vowel a, o, or u, or any other letter then the hard sound is produced. This hard sound of c and g is like the phoneme /k/ and /g/ respectively. Here are some examples of such words.
c+a — cap, car, candy || g+a — gang, gas, gap
c+o — corpse, conquer, colleague || g+o — good, goblet, grasp
c+u — cunning, cup, cuddle || g+u — guess, gum, gutter
? Exceptions
When it comes to pronouncing the hard and soft sounds of c and g, it is not so easy. There are some exceptions to the general rules discussed above. This involves pronouncing the hard sound of ‘c’ and ‘g’ according to the rule as a soft sound. For example, gear, girl, gift, give, tiger, get, celt, get, gild are those exceptions to this rule.
In addition to these words, some verbs contain the letter ‘g’ at their end. For example, ringing, banging, etc. The rule indicates that there will be a soft ‘g’ sound while pronouncing these words whereas a soft sound of ‘g’ is indicated by these words. Some other exceptions are the foreign words included in the English language such as geisha or gestalt. The names of Scottish origin also come in exceptions such as Gilchrist, Gilroy, Gillespie, etc.
Moreover, some words include both hard and soft sounds. Some examples are mentioned below.
success clearance
bicycle vacancy
gorgeous garage
gigantic geography
If you notice, the words success, clearance, bicycle, and vacancy contain both hard and soft sounds of the letter ‘c’ in their pronunciation. Similarly, the words gorgeous, garage, gigantic, and geography contain both hard and soft sounds of ‘g’ in their pronunciation.