The "C" rule

Good Tuesday, folks!

We've had some fun with grammar and vocabulary but haven't been speaking about Phonetics lately. So, I think it's time we started, eh?

Has any of you heard about the "C" rule? I apologise for calling it so weirdly, though it's a simple one.

Sometimes we look at words and start dwelling on their pronunciation, and this easy-peasy rule will help us solve one the thoughts.

e.g. city [siti] BUT cat [kœt], why on earth ???

Here we go, folks:

RULE: if you have, as I usually call them, a vicious threesome - e, I, and y - you will pronounce the letter "C" as [s]; in other cases, "C" = [K], copy that? Let's try them in some examples, shall we?

e.g. cIty = [s], cIte = [s], cEnt = [s], cYnicIsm = [s];

e.g. cAt = [k], cOp = [k], cOver = [k];

There are some interesting cases, though!

• In Latin names/borrowings, the letter "C" meant [k], so we should pronounce the name "Caesar" with the [k] sound, but it's got assimilated;
• Words, like "soccer" and "muscle", are weird to natives in terms of their spell-say ambiguity;
• Words, like "sceptic" and "picnic" have appeared in a lot of cases to be spelt "skeptic" and "picknic", accordingly. (that's more American for now, though)

So, that's been the "C" rule, stay tuned as the "G" rule's on its way!

Cheers!