- The letters 'c' and 'g' are the only letters that have both a hard sound and a soft sound, not to be confused with voiced and unvoiced sounds (Bishop, 1986). Both the hard and soft sounds of 'c' are unvoiced sounds, while both sounds of 'g' are voiced sounds.
- When the letter 'c' is followed by the vowels 'e', 'i', or 'y', it does not matter if the sound of the vowel is long or short: the letter 'c' always makes the soft sound, like in the words cent (short 'e') and cedar (long 'e') (Bishop, 1986).
- Some words can have both the hard and soft sound of 'c' in one word, like in accent and cycle (Bishop, 1986).
- Other languages have developed other spelling rules to keep the hard 'g' sound before the letters 'e', 'i', and 'y'. For example, Italian words might have a silent 'h' in between the 'g' and the vowel, like in spaghetti. Words from French and Spanish origin often have a silent 'u' after the 'g', like in guest and guide (Bishop, 1986).
References
Bishop, M. M. (1986). The ABC's and all their tricks: The complete reference book of phonics and spelling. Mott Media.
