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The letter G can be pronounced either hard or soft and is also often silent!

Pronunciations 04 - The Letter G

The letter G is the seventh letter of the English alphabet and is a consonant. The letter lends interesting possibilities in pronunciation and spellings. G is normally associated with two sounds, as represented by the words GIRL and the word GIANT. The G in GIRL is a sound referred to as the ‘hard’ sound and the G in GIANT is referred to as a ‘soft’ sound, similar to the letter J.

It is commonly understood that the letters G and C behave similarly in pronunciation, but there are too many exceptions! The letter G is fairly complicated and does not lend to rules easily. Just look at some words which use the letter G:

While THOUGHT and THOUGH have just one letter that separates them, their pronunciations are quite different. THOUGH is pronounced as THOW and THROUGH is pronounced as THREW, a single letter changes the pronunciation.

1 .

Choose the correct statement relating to pronunciation of the letter G.

Words that have G followed by I are always pronounced with the hard G.

Words that have G followed by I are pronounced with the hard G as well as the soft G.

Words that have G followed by I are always silent.

Words that have G followed by I are always pronounced with the soft G.

There are many words with G followed by I that use the hard and soft G sound. For example, 'girl', 'begin' and 'gift' use a hard G whilst 'giant', 'logic' and 'digit' use a soft G

2 .

Choose the group in which all the words contain two hard G sounds.

geography, angiogram, gauge

language, garage, gigantic

gargantuan, demagogue, Gregorian

geology, ginger, geneology

Both of the Gs in these words have hard G sound. The words in answers 1 and 2 have both the hard and the soft G sounds, whilst those in answer 4 have two soft G sounds

3 .

Choose the group of words which uses the hard G sound, as in GIRL.

god, dragon, ego

govern, paragon, vertigo

gobar, vigorous, embargo

All the above.

When the letter G is followed by O the sound is generally a hard G

4 .

Choose the group of words which use the soft G sound, as in GERM.

ring, ping, crying

purge, surge, merge

sang, pang, gong

clang, lung, wing

Words ending with GE generally have a soft G sound. Words ending with NG generally have the hard G sound

5 .

Choose the group of words which does not use the soft G sound as in GERM.

gamut, gallow, elegance

allege, bridge, edge

mirage, genocide, gene

germs, geometry, ledger

These have the hard G sound. Generally, when the G letter is followed by E the sound is soft. Exceptions are many such as GEAR, GEESE, GET

6 .

Choose the group of words which do not have silent letter Gs.

champagne, diaphragm, alight

right, drought, eight

align, reign, gnash

suggest, baggage, beggar

Note that when GG is used it is possible to have both the hard and soft G sound - in 'suggest' the GG is soft, but in 'baggage' and 'beggar' it is hard. The words in other options have a silent G. Generally, when G is used with M, N or H it is silent.

7 .

Choose the group of words which does not use the soft G sound as in GERM.

embargo, inorganic, fragrant

allergy, apology, gypsum

topology, gypsy, gym

gypped, theology, sociology

These words have the hard G sound. When the letter G is followed by Y the sound is generally a soft G

8 .

Choose the group of words which uses the hard G sound, as in GIRL.

argue, guerilla, gum

figure, vague, gutter

hangup, languish, guilty

All the above.

When the letter G is followed by U the sound is generally a hard G

9 .

Choose the list of words which has one word with a hard G and one with a soft G.

germanium, Germany

porridge, sledging

grieve, glance

Margaret, margarine

One of those cases where G followed by A has the soft sound as in 'margarine', but 'Margaret' has a hard G and does not follow the rule. The words in the other options have either two soft G sounds or two hard G sounds

10 .

Choose the group of words which uses the hard G sound, as in GIRL.

garden, game, gas

saga, organic, legal

mega, sugar, omega

All the above.

When the G letter is followed by A the sound is generally a hard G

Author: V T Narendra