The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules (19 page)

Again, there are a few exceptions, but they are also mainly exotic imports:

The
k
has to be used instead of
c
when a
k
sound is needed before the letters
e, i
and
y
:

When a word needs a silent
e
at the end but also needs the hard
k
sound, the
c
cannot be used. We must use a
k
:

After the letter
s
the
c
becomes silent if it is followed by
e
or
i
:

But if the
sc
is followed by
a, o,
or
u
, it will sound like a
k
:

And sometimes the
sc
digraph produces the
sh
sound when it is followed by the soft vowels,
e
or
i
:

C
HAPTER 16

Soft and Hard
g

M
any writers lump the
c
and
g
together when explaining hard and soft sounds. Although they are similar in many ways, however, the
g
is more complex than the
c
and should be studied separately.

The ancient Celts did not have the letter k, so the name of their tribe should be pronounced kelt. It is sometimes spelled that way when it is used as a noun. The adjective celtic should be pronounced keltic following the pattern of the noun. The exception is Boston’s basketball team.

Spelling rule #1: The
g
is soft before
y
and sounds like
j
:

Gynecology
is the only exception. In North America, the initial
g
is hard. The second
g
follows the rules.

Spelling rule #2: When adding a suffix that starts with
a, o,
or
u
, or a consonant, to a word that ends in
ge
, we must retain the silent
e
. Otherwise, the
g
becomes hard.

When adding a suffix that begins with
e, i,
or
y
to a word that ends in
ge
, we drop the silent
e
because it is not needed:

English being the interesting language that it is, there are, of course, anomalies like
singeing
.

An interesting anomaly is the word
mortgage
. The variations,
mortgagee
and
mortgaged
, follow the spelling rules, but
mortgagor
breaks the rule by not retaining the softening
e
. It is nevertheless pronounced with the final soft
g
.