1. An Overview of Soft 'c' and Soft 'g'

As you guide your students through the spelling patterns of English, you'll be asking them to develop more and more flexibility. Soft 'c' and soft 'g' are variations you'll probably introduce in first grade … after your students have become confident with the hard sounds in words like cot and cave and gum and go.

Let's explore when we can expect to hear the soft sounds of 'c' and 'g'.

Hard and Soft 'c'

The first sound that students learn for the letter 'c' is /k/ … the classic /k/ in cat. 

• /k/ as in cat

We call this the hard 'c' sound, and it's the most common sound for 'c'. This is why we focus on that sound-letter correspondence first, before teaching soft 'c'. 

Soft 'c' refers to when the letter 'c' spells the /s/ sound, as in cent. 

• /s/ as in cent.

We can expect the soft 'c' sound in three circumstances:

1. When 'c' is followed by an 'e', like in ice and cent
2. When 'c' is followed by an 'i', like in city
3. When 'c' is followed by a 'y', like in cycle

Typically, words like face and rice will be the first time your students will encounter soft 'c' … words ending in '-ace' or '-ice' which follow the magic 'e' phonics pattern.

In our phonics continuum, you'll notice soft 'c' and soft 'g' come right after magic 'e', building on what students just learned about long vowels. Those two skills together open up lots of words to your young readers: race, lace, and space … nice, mice, and twice.

Exception to the Rule

The soft 'c' spelling pattern is generally predictable, but it has a few exceptions, as in soccer, cello, and cappuccino. Often the exceptions come from words borrowed from other languages.

Hard and Soft 'g'

Just like with 'c', the hard 'g' sound is the first 'g' sound that students learn. It's /g/ as in go. 

• /g/ as in go

Most words with the letter 'g' use its hard sound, and that's why we focus on that sound-letter correspondence first. 

The term soft 'g' refers to when the 'g' spells the /j/ sound, like in gem. 

•  /j/ as in gem

We see soft 'g' in three spelling situations:

1. When 'g' is followed by an 'e', like in gem or age
2. When 'g' is followed by an 'i', like in gist
3. When 'g' is followed by 'y', like in gym

You can introduce your students to the concept of soft 'g' in '-ge' after you teach the sound of soft 'c' in '-ace' and '-ice', building on what students just learned about long vowels and opening up words like age and huge.

Exception to the Rule

The soft 'g' rule has many exceptions, including in words that are common for beginning readers like get, girl, and gift. For this reason we recommend first focusing on soft 'g' in '-ge'.