Pronunciation 5 - Soft and Hard C and G

The consonants c and g each have two possible pronunciations in Italian: a soft sound and a hard sound. When the c or g is followed by an e or an i it has a soft sound. Otherwise it has a hard sound.

	soft c		hard c		soft g		hard g
	centro		cane		gente		gatto
	luce		barca		gelato		fuga
	cibo		cosa		gita		gonnna
	amici		amico		pagina		lago
			sicuro				figura
			cultura				gustoso

Special spellings

When a hard c or g comes before an e or an i, an h is inserted to indicate the correct pronunciation.

	ch		gh
	forchetta		spaghetti
	anche		righe
	maschile		ghiro
	architetto		laghi

Likewise, when a soft c or g comes before an a, o or u, an i is inserted to indicate the correct pronunciation. In this case the i is normally silent.

	ci		gi
	sociale		giallo
	brucia		mangia
	ciotola		giorno
	ufficio		rifugio
	ciuffo		giusto

Be careful though - there are a few words where the i is in fact pronounced as a separate syllable:

	ci		gi
	farmacia		energia
	vocio		biologia

S + Soft C

When a soft c is preceded by an s the combination is pronounced like an English sh. In addition, when this sh sound occurs between two vowels it is always pronounced as though it were a doubled consonant (see Lesson 3) - in other words, the preceding vowel is short and the consonant itself is elongated.

	sci/sce		sci/sce
	uscita		scivolare
	scena		nascere
	sciarpa		lascia
	sciolto		liscio
	prosciutto		sciupare

Exercise

The following exercise contains all the example Italian words from this lesson.

Next Lesson: Pronunciation 6 - GN and GLI