How to Pronounce the Letter C in English

How do you pronounce scent? Do you pronounce the letter C in scent as the soft C [sen] or as the hard C [sken] ?

English learners can have a hard time choosing which sound to use in words containing the letter C, but the rule is actually very simple – with the usual few exceptions.

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, acros

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;

Hard C and Soft C

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. More exceptions are soccer [sokker]; we don’t pronounce it as soser and muscle [musle]; we don’t pronounce it as muskle.

Mixed sounds

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]

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. 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.

Sometimes “ch” in words of foreign origin is pronounced [sh], e.g. in mustache, cache, niche, chic, machine.

Prefixes and Suffixes

There are many prefixes and suffixes in English. What I posted here is just a few of them. You might need to consult your dictionary to know other kinds of prefixes and suffixes.

If you put a certain prefix to a root word, it will change the meaning of the word. For example, if you put the prefix in- before the root word ‘active’, it means not active.

To change the function of the root word, just add a suffix at the end of the word. For example, if you place the suffix -er at the end of the verb ‘compute’, so now it becomes ‘computer’ and functions as a noun.

The following prefixes mean ‘not’ – the opposite of the root word:

un- : unnatural

dis- : disagree

im- : immoral

in- : inactive

il- : illegal

ir- : irregular

non- : non-living

The prefix re- means ‘again’

redo

replay

rewind

rewrite

The prefix bi- means ‘having two’

bicycle (having two wheels)

bilingual (having two languages)

The prefix di- means ‘twice’ or ‘double’

dilemma

dioxide

The prefix co- means ‘jointly’ or ‘equally’

co-operate

co-worker

The prefix ex- means ‘out’, ‘out of’ or ‘out from’ also‘former’

extract

expatriate

ex-husband

The following suffixes are used to form nouns:

-ness : togetherness

-ance or -ence : disturbance difference

-ment : development

-ion : generation

-er or -or : banker, editor

The suffix -ly is used to form adverbs of manner

nicely

friendly

The suffix -ous is used to form adjectives

dangerous

hazardous

Check out this video from cambridgeenglishtv.