Grammar

Often students get confused when we tell students to "sound the word out." Often words are set up in complex ways that we are unable to just go sound by sound to get the pronunciation.

The following website offers some helpful hints with grammar to remember if the letter see should sound like /K/; like in the word /cat/ or if it should sound like /s/; like in the word /city/.

http://speakspeak.com/resources/pronunciation/when-to-pronounce-the-letter-c-as-s-or-k

When to pronounce the letter ‘c’ as /s/ or /k/

In English the letter ‘c’ is mostly pronounced as a /k/ sound.

We can also pronounce it as an /s/ sound.

Listen to the difference:

/k/ car	car
/s/ city	city

The rule

• When ’c‘ comes directly before the letters ‘e‘, ‘i‘ or ‘y‘ we use the /s/ sound
• in other cases we use a /k/ sound.

Words containing the letter ‘c’ pronounced as /k/

word	pronunciation	why?
car	car	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
cut	cut	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
cool	cool	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
curtain	curtain	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
carpet	carpet	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
confuse	confuse	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’
caught	caught	because it is not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’

Words containing the ‘c’ pronounced as /s/

word	pronunciation	why?
city	city	because it comes directly before ‘i’
cent	cent	because it comes directly before ‘e’
dancing	dancing	because it comes directly before ‘i’
ice	ice	because it comes directly before ‘e’
certain	certain	because it comes before directly ’e’
face	face	because it comes directly before ‘e’
receive	receive	because it comes directly before ‘e’

Exceptions

One notable exception is the word soccer (we pronounce the first and second ‘c’ as a /k/ sound: /sokə/).

Another exception is muscle /mʌsəl/.