How to pronounce g

Unlike the letter c, which is an alternate spelling for the sounds of k and s and has no sound of its own, the letter g does have one sound of its own: the “hard” sound heard in glove. The second sound of g, the “soft” sound heard in giant, represents the sound that belongs to the letter j [j].

In English, words beginning with ‘g‘ can have a soft (giraffe) or hard (give) pronunciation, and therein lies the problem. During the Middle English period, we borrowed a lot from French, which used ‘g‘ for a hard g before back vowels (a, o, u) and a soft g before front vowels (i, e).

The general rule is this: if the letter after ‘g‘ is ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’, the pronunciation is a ‘soft g‘ as in ‘fringe’. Some examples of words with the soft ‘g‘ are: 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.

“Soft” G — when g represents the “j” sound.

In front of an e, i, or y, g usually represents the “j” sound (“gentle”), and sometimes the “zh” sound (second g in “garage”).

These mostly involve giving hard pronunciation to words where the rule indicates a soft sound would normally be used. These exceptions include: Gear, get, gelding, give, girl, gift, tiger, celt.

soft g words. Word List: large, barge, Marge, age, cage, page, stage.

When G or C is followed by a consonant, the sound is hard. Examples: glass.

The letter ”g” has two sounds, hard “g” and soft “g”. The hard sound of “g” occurs more frequently.

Basically, because ‘giraffe’ entered English from French, in which the latter g is always pronounced ‘soft‘ before e and i, while ‘give’ and ‘give’ are words of Germanic origin, in which the same letter has kept its original ‘hard‘ sound.