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 ‘c’ as an /s/ sound.
Click on a word to hear the difference:
car car /k/ sound
city city /s/ sound
The rule
Here’s 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/
| pronunciation | why? |
| car | It’s not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’. |
| cut | It’s not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’. |
| cool | It’s not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’. |
| curtain | It’s not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’. |
| carpet | It’s not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’. |
| confuse | It’s not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’. |
| caught | It’s not followed directly by ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’. |
Words containing the ‘c’ pronounced as /s/
| pronunciation | why? |
| city | It comes directly before ‘i’. |
| cent | It comes directly before ‘e’. |
| dancing | It comes directly before ‘i’. |
| ice | It comes directly before ‘e’. |
| certain | It comes directly before ‘e’. |
| face | It comes directly before ‘e’. |
| receive | It comes directly before ‘e’. |
Exceptions
One notable exception is the word soccer. (We pronounce both the letters ‘c’ as a single /k/ sound /sokə/.)
Another exception is muscle /mʌsəl/.
Michael S. - September 19, 2017, 7:09 am
The word Cephalexin is in my book pronounced incorrectly by phamacists. Surely it should be a soft ‘C’ not a ‘K’ sound. This bugs me.
Nivedita Roy - July 16, 2018, 6:28 am
Yes it is pronounced c^(s) cephalexin (sefalaksin).. as the word cephal comes from ‘cephalous’, that is ‘the cranium’
LEO F ONEIL - February 4, 2018, 7:24 pm
What about C pronounced as Q?
cute
cupid
prosecutorial
Anonymous - February 28, 2018, 7:53 am
C is not pronounced as Q in those words. The C sounds like K and the U is long, which means it says its name.
anton van niekerk - May 9, 2020, 3:32 pm
do americans say koot for cute ? in England its definately qu-oot, and qu-pid, not ku-oopit, which to us sounds a bit stoo-pid. The other word that sounds wrong when Americans speak is the way they say Duke, which ought to sound like *Juke* as in box. Wallis Simpson always referred to he husband as the *Dook* which to our ears sounded like a word one might use when referring to an imbecile. Was John Wayne referred to as the *Dook* in American media ? I have only seen that written, so don’t know how they pronounced it.
Ross Peterson - July 22, 2020, 5:03 pm
The Cs in Cute, cupid, and prosecutorial are are pronounced “KY” (palatalized) and not “KW / Q(u)”, whether you’re English or American.
Hillary - April 22, 2021, 4:52 am
Wow! You are amazing! You made it perfectly clear to me. Thanks a lot!
Marçal Escartin Guerrero - October 27, 2020, 10:31 pm
the sound /q/ or /Q/ does not exist, in fact, the sound that you want to highlight in the examples are just /k/ sounds accompanied by a /j/ sound as in cute –> /kju:t/
Anonymous - April 29, 2021, 7:54 am
it is not Q, it is K with U
Anonymous - September 28, 2022, 6:42 am
Because it was followed by vowel U, so the letter C sounds K, as the vowel U read and prounounced as “YOU” thats why its Cure, cute, cupid, Cumin, cucumber,
Anonymous - February 18, 2018, 9:06 pm
What about ch , cea and cia ?
we can’t pronounce C here as K or S .
Nizte Nitze - April 2, 2018, 5:47 am
Ch is a completely different sound, there is no way to make a ch sound using any other word, so look at ch not as ‘c’ and ‘h’ but rather CH, one letter.
In that case, C makes no sound, it just makes ch sound when with h.
Cea and Cia are both pronounced with long C and are similar sounding. Meaning the sound C makes in “Cia” or “Cea” is its own name “cee-yea”.
Subha - May 16, 2018, 7:48 am
Why do we ‘c’ as ‘ke’ in the word ‘character’
Anonymous - July 8, 2018, 10:29 pm
There will always be an exemption to the rule.
Anonymous2.0 - September 16, 2021, 12:00 am
You are right about exception to the rule in the word facade the C takes on a S sound
Jordan - July 2, 2022, 8:20 pm
Facade is considered a loan word from French, and technically is written façade with a ç instead of a c (even though no one writes it in English that way). I don’t know the difference, but I’m assuming that impacts the pronunciation. A relevant question would be, when is a loan word is considered to be fully part of English?
Anonymous - October 31, 2020, 11:28 am
‘c’ and ‘ch’ are different word , it pronounced differently.
Mohammed - June 1, 2018, 8:45 am
How about ocean
Shelley Estes - July 9, 2021, 3:52 pm
C is directly before e in ocean. it follows the rule.
Kim Dammers - March 8, 2022, 5:46 pm
No. “Ocean” is pronounced with an /sh/ sound, not an /s/ sound.
The rules (actually patterns) given are very good, but there are exceptions.
Anonymous - March 23, 2022, 6:39 am
or facial, especially, special – its because 94% of the time when c is followed by i, e or y it says /s/ and 6% it says /sh/
David - August 23, 2018, 6:25 pm
I have not a new reply but saying thankyou for all details you left us about the letter”c”sounds.Now I dare to let you another question:what about the words”schedule and school”?
Anna - May 5, 2021, 12:30 pm
ch can also say /k/.
Anonymous - October 24, 2018, 12:07 pm
How about
Character
Charming
Scheme
Schedule
Anonymous - October 24, 2018, 12:14 pm
Why Letter C sound different in these words
Character
Charming
Scheme
Schedule
Shelley - July 9, 2021, 3:53 pm
C does not come directly before e, i, or y in these words. It follows the rule.
Anonymous - June 5, 2022, 5:47 pm
It’s the /ch/ which is another sounds completely
Mary - March 27, 2019, 12:39 am
Why is Celtic pronounced with a “k” sound? It proceeds an “e” and ends with a consonant.
Sue - August 6, 2020, 9:51 am
I think this is regional. Up north and in Scotland ,Celtic is pronounced s, whereas in Wales it is pronounced k. The football team, Glasgow Celtic, pronounced with s but the hotel near Newport, Celtic Manor, pronounced k.
Anthony - January 28, 2022, 12:11 pm
Not so much regional as religious maybe? K/eltic is a group of people and period in time throughout ancient Britain where as Glasgow S/elic is a Catholic oriented football team.
Another reason maybe that as football and even sports in America with teams named Celtic, were named after the grammar rules came into play.
Just my thoughts.
Jordan - July 2, 2022, 8:24 pm
Historically, which is to say, on the scale of the evolution of most language pronunciation, geography/region and religion would be so highly correlated as to be effectively the same. Even today, outside of the US and the most cosmopolitan, global cities, most regions have vastly dominant religions.
Andrew - January 19, 2023, 10:03 am
I think this is because the prunuciation here comes from other languages: in Ireland they pronounce celt /s/. In Irish (gaelic) this is the pronunciation. In English it is with /k/ this may be because it comes from Greek or Welsh (not sure).
Jeff - May 8, 2019, 10:41 am
Because there is a h after c and not a i e or y.
Till - May 8, 2019, 9:01 pm
Why do some people pronounce “appreciate” with an “s-sound” while others pronounce it more like appre-sh-iate ?
Tyler - December 6, 2019, 6:51 am
To me the article is incomplete as it doesn’t mention the pronunciation of ‘cea’ and ‘cia’ as exceptions to the rule. Both cea and cia are pronounced as a ‘sh’-sound. Examples: ocean, crustacean, politician, provincial, official or appreciate. Because there are exceptions such as pronunciation or conceal I assume the ‘sh’-sound has evolved from the ‘s’-sound in these situations for ‘sh’ is a little easier/faster to speak in most cases. However, I’m happy to be corrected here.
Anonymous - August 21, 2020, 5:16 am
Interesting, yet the word you used “pronunciation” is not /sh/ but /s/, right? Is it safe to say it would be an exception to the general cia /sh/ rule?
Stuart Cook - August 26, 2020, 6:51 am
In Tyler’s examples (ocean, crustacean, politician, provincial, official), ‘c’ is pronounced ‘sh’ as it begins the last syllable of each word. Words ending in -ciation use the ‘s’ sound.
Anas jaafar - January 11, 2020, 11:35 am
Why the word society
faten - January 28, 2020, 7:33 pm
Thank you but why curtain s????????????
Akshat Goswami - June 8, 2022, 4:20 pm
Curtain is pronounced K, I think you mean Certain, which is definitely pronounced S
Jalal - February 2, 2020, 9:26 pm
What about deck /s/ or /k/
Harshavardhan - June 18, 2021, 6:08 am
infornt of K and Q c is silent
Akshat Goswami - June 8, 2022, 4:14 pm
It is silent
Kiran - August 12, 2020, 2:57 pm
What about channel…..
Niel - October 30, 2020, 6:38 pm
Question – Why is it spelled “University” and not “Univercity”?
Andrew - January 19, 2023, 10:15 am
Because the ‘root’ word is universe.
Deeb Hasan - January 1, 2021, 11:33 am
Hi, I expect we need to learn the word as it is pronounced by the dictionary. No “Why?” Take it or leave it and look for an equivalent
.
Abdennacer - January 3, 2021, 7:09 am
It can be pronounced “sh” also.
e.g. crucial
Anonymous - March 19, 2021, 4:51 pm
pronounce this word please FACADE
Andrew - January 19, 2023, 10:18 am
Imported word. Sometimes you will see the c written with a squiggle below it indicating that it’s a soft c.
Anvi Panda - May 26, 2021, 3:41 pm
It really helped me think of words.
Anonymous - June 18, 2021, 6:12 am
Is there any letters like “c”.
Kim Dammers - March 8, 2022, 5:52 pm
Maybe G: good vs. nudge; rage vs. Reggae.
Anonymous - October 15, 2021, 1:02 pm
C sound in the list
Anonymous - October 15, 2021, 1:05 pm
C for Crib. crab click clip chomp Chris chant church circle cider began That starts with C
DANIYA ALI - November 15, 2021, 9:09 am
In the name Cillian, ‘c’ is followed by ‘i’ then why is it pronounced as Killian?
Junior - January 26, 2022, 6:11 pm
And what about the word Celt which is pronounced as “Kelt”? This was the word which prompted the question of how “C” should be pronounced in the first place.
Akshat Goswami - April 24, 2022, 12:15 am
C makes the Ch sound in word Cello
Jeff - August 24, 2022, 1:17 am
What about when an S follows a C ?
Tucson (Arizona) = Too son . Unlike the Tuscon villages of Italy = Tus kin
Also in Tucson why is the son sound like sawn ?
Hacksaw - September 19, 2022, 9:26 pm
Tuscon is a corrupted borrow word from the Piman (as in Pima, AZ) language (O’odham, related to the Aztecs), via Spanish.
Mobin Ahmad - November 21, 2022, 5:48 pm
Useful and brief. Thanks
Helena - December 4, 2022, 6:04 am
What about “doctor”?
Andrew - January 19, 2023, 10:16 am
when followed by consonants, /k/.
Anonymous - January 19, 2023, 5:46 pm
in the word facade
Ramsha - January 19, 2023, 5:47 pm
In the word ‘facade’ why c sounds like /s/ though it is not before e I or y
Stuart Cook - January 19, 2023, 7:11 pm
Because it’s borrowed from French, where it is written façade. The cedilla under the ‘c’ shows that it is pronounced ‘s’ rather than ‘k’.
Eleni Amanuel Weldemichael - April 7, 2023, 6:40 am
How do you read this car brand then , ‘Tucson’? Takson or Tukson or Tuson?
Chandan - April 26, 2023, 6:51 am
number 7 is spelled as Seven and not Ceven. There e after C. So that should sound like /s/ . But still the spelling is Seven. Why?
Mr Phil - October 5, 2023, 6:24 pm
We write our Christian name as lowercase c with two marks underneath. McDaniel. I think it means to shorten the Mc to “mik”, and not to drawl saying “maak”. I can’t find the rule. Iphone offers these three alternatives;
ç , ć, or č. Can someone explain. I’ve also heard that McDaniel is one of thirty or so variations of the McDonald clan name. True or false?