English rules for the letter 'c'

English rules for the letter 'c'

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Sun, March 7, 2010 12:32:00 AM

From: kaputy@yahoo.com

To:

ikra.inteligent_82@yahoo.com

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Dear Ikra,

One of the most important concepts of English is this-

Every English word must contain a 'vowel' they are (a-e-i-o-u and sometimes y)

Since there are 26 letters in the English alphabet the other 20 letters are called 'consonant's'. They are  b-c-d-f-g-h-j-k-l-m-n-p-q-r-s-t-v-w-x-y-z.

'y' is included in both 'consonant's' and 'vowels' because of the word sometimes. This is not critical.
What follows are the only rules concerning the pronunciation of the letter 'c'.

Pronunciation Symbols Used

The symbol ī has been used to denote the sound of the letter "i" in words such as night, climb, and tiny.

All other letters used should be pronounced as in everyday English use.

Hard c

The letter c is pronounced [k] :

• when followed by a, o, u or a consonant*
• at the end of a word

Examples

ca-: car, cast, recall;

co-: coat, copper, accomplish;

cu-: cut, acute, accurate;

c+consonant: article, across, respect;

-c: tunic; arithmetic, havoc.

* consonants are the letters of the alphabet without the vowels (a, e, i, o, u), so for English they are b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.

Soft c

The letter c is pronounced [s] :

• when followed by e, i or y

Examples

ce-: celebrate, recede, peace;

ci-: cigar, Cinderella, principal;

cy-: cymbal, fancy, Lucy;

Exceptions

There are very few exceptions to this rule, not counting foreign words which have been borrowed into English.

One notable exception is Celt [kelt], describing e.g. the Irish and Scots.

Mixed sounds

Of course, some words have both of the features explained above. Apply the rule for each c separately.

Examples:

• conceal [konseel] - co is hard, ce is soft
• reconcile [rekonsīl]
• recycle [reesīkl]

This also applies to words with two c's together.

Examples:

• access [aksess] - c + consonant (the second c) is hard, c + e is soft
• accent [aksent]
• vaccine [vaksīn]
• Rebecca [ribekka] - both c's are hard (c + consonant and c + a)

Other exceptions

A Note on "c+h"

You know all about the [tsch] sound of "ch" in words such as church, match, choice, cheer, arch, achieve, chief, and children.

However, the combination c+h is not always pronounced this way.

1. Sometimes the h is there between a c and a "soft vowel" to indicate that the hard [k] sound is needed, e.g. architecture, ache, scheme, anarchist, archive, catechism, schism, chiropodist, monarchy, psychiatric, chasm, chemical.
2. Sometimes "ch" in words of foreign origin is pronounced [sh], e.g. in mustache, cache, niche, chic, machine.