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/.
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