English Pronunciation | The Letter 'C' | 3 Ways to Pronounce the Letter C in English!

hello and welcome back to easy english with james today we're going to have a look at the letter c there are three ways that we can pronounce this letter in english if you want to know what they are stick with me for this short but interesting lesson okay okay the letter c this is a consonant letter a consonant it's the second consonant in english after the letter b if you want to know how to pronounce the letter b correctly check out this video up here okay c is interesting because when we say the letter in the alphabet we say c c a little bit like the spanish word for yes c c okay c the letter c here what's interesting is that it sounds like two words the word see spelled s-e-a which is as you know the place where you can go swimming next to the beach or the verb see to see something so s e e c s e a c and the single letter c all sound exactly the same okay we pronounce that letter in the alphabet as c c c okay so this letter how is it pronounced in english when it's in words at the beginning or the end or in the middle as i said at the beginning of this lesson there are three ways to pronounce this letter the first way and the most common that means that you'll find it most often in most words where you see this letter is quite simple it's as a okay now to make this sound the back of your tongue should touch the top of your mouth in the middle and then you sort of imagine like a wave in the sea pushing the sound out of your mouth okay tongue up at the back and push okay that is the most common way that this letter is pronounced in english look at the words cat or cop or cut you'll notice that they all start with the letter c and they're all followed by either a o or u and that is a rule for you in english if you see the letter c and it's followed by the letter a o or u then we pronounce it so pick a word for example we'll try call call is followed by the letter a the c is followed by the letter a so it is a hard c many people like to call it the hard c because it sounds a little bit more tough okay call cat can okay all of those are a c followed by the vowel letter a so it's pronounced what about c followed by o on come or con or control okay c followed by o again hard c sound so again compass for example compass c followed by a hard sound what about in c u in words like cut cut or cutlery cutlery again c followed by the vowel letter u is also a hard k sound now there's another time where we use this hard k sound and that is when c is followed by nothing c is at the end of a word this is often in words that end in i see so things like basic or music or academic okay basic music and academic that c is on its own at the end of the word and there's nothing after it in that case also a hard k sound practice these with me music basic academic academic you'll notice in that last one academic you've got two c's you've got a c at the beginning followed by the letter a and we know when it's followed by the letter a it's a hard c so ack akka and then demik because the c at the end is not followed by anything it's at the end of a word on its own so it's also a hard academic academic okay there is one final way that we also pronounce this letter c as a a hard sound and that is when it's followed by a consonant another consonant check out the word fact fact here you can see that the letter c is followed by a t which is another consonant so we pronounce it fact fact it's a tricky one because you have to go from one consonant sound to another consonant sound really quickly fact fact try it with me fact fact fact okay also in words like class class you've got that c followed by the letter l class class now the tricky part when the c is followed by another consonant is that rather than saying separately we try to say them so fast that they sound like one sound so we don't say class we say class and it's so quick you can't really hear the difference between the and the sound class class similar to fact when we speak really fast we don't say fac we say fact and that c and t is almost like one sound because we say them so quickly okay so remember that a o and u vowel letters if the c comes before a o and u it's a hard k sound also if the c is at the end of a word and on its own it is also a a hard sound and finally when the c comes before another consonant like an l or a t or an r in cross okay also then it is a hard k sound let's try some practice sentences so that you can practice that hard sound try this one the cop carried the cupcake to the castle in the clouds the cop carried the cupcake to the castle in the clouds lots of sounds there okay and you'll notice nearly all of those rules the cop carried the cupcake to the castle in the clouds in that sentence you'll see the c before the letter l you'll see the c before the vowel letter u and you'll notice that all the rules with a o or u and consonants are in that sentence try one more time with me the cop carried the cupcake to the castle in the clouds okay your turn okay well done rewind that and practice it as many times as you need until you've got that sound perfect okay let's move on to the second way we can pronounce this letter okay the second way that we can pronounce the letter c in english is as a s often called the soft c many people call this the soft c it sounds the same as we often pronounce the letter s in english so that's why words like cell and cell are pronounced the same because this soft c sounds just like an s so it's an easy way for you to remember how to make this sound and how do we make it okay this time we put the tongue behind the alveolar ridge okay the alveolar ridge is that little place behind your teeth here and you put your tongue just behind there and blow air s some people like to put their teeth together here or their teeth together here okay and you blow air out that is the soft s sound the soft c sound okay when we pronounce the letter c we are using that soft s sound okay we're using at the start of the pronunciation of the letter c the same as i said as in words with an s like c or c okay c c the letter c so when do we use the soft c simple rule for this one if the letter c is before the letter i i or e or y i or e or y so think about this in the word city city the letter c is before and i city city what about in the word sent as in american money ten cents okay here the c is before the letter e so again soft s sent one cent two cents okay what about the letter y c before a y in words like cycle or cyclone okay cycle and cyclone again here cyclone cycle cyclone cycle it's a soft sound okay so remember the letter c if it's followed by the letter e some words that we can practice here are sent or central or center okay center why because the c is before the letter e so it's soft sound also very very important in words with i c e very common in english there are lots and lots and lots of these words in english think of words like nice being nice you'll see the letter i then the letter c and what is the next letter it's an e so that means that the c is soft rice price nice twice okay lots of those words in english with i c e remember if you see those that combination of letters i c e pronounce it as a soft s sound okay before the letter i some practice words are words like circle circle or cinema cinema i'm going to the cinema okay the most common word there is city city but there are another set of words that end often in ise words like exercise exercise or concise concise or precise precise and finally let's practice before the y cycle cycle cyclical cyst yeah cyst and cyclone cyclone in the middle you might find bicycle bicycle okay c before the letter y is always a an sound okay cycle cyclone let's practice this pronunciation of the letter c with a long practice sentence i cycled in a circle around the cinema in the center of the city i cycled in a circle around the cinema in the center of the city okay your turn follow after me i cycled in a circle around the cinema in the center of the city your turn okay i want you to rewind that one because there's lots of soft s sounds in there and you'll see again all of the rules just look at the words in that sentence look at the letter c and think what letter is after the letter c and does that fit the rule i cycled in a circle around the cinema in the center of the city okay practice that a thousand times until you've got that s sound perfect remember tongue just behind the alveolar bridge air blown around the tongue same as in words that are spelled with an s sound okay okay there is one more way to pronounce the letter c in english it's not so common you won't see it as much but it's still very very important to learn this way is the same as in the sh we can pronounce c like this okay if you know how to make the sh sound in english shh you bring your lips together and purse out and your tongue sort of stays down and you push air out again it's the same sound in english that we use when we want to tell people to be quiet okay this can also be a way that we pronounce the letter c think about words like ocean ocean or financial or precious or even special you are all very very special students and i hope that if you enjoy this lesson you will hit that like and subscribe button so that you don't miss any of my other lessons this is going to be a long series of pronunciation lessons that i hope will help you to really improve your english pronunciation so if you want to be special and if you want to improve your english hit that like and that subscribe button okay back to the sh sound in words like ocean okay that c is followed by two vowel letters you've got o c and then you've got e a shen ocean two vowel letters what about in special speci and then i a l i a two vowel letters again maybe you can guess the rule here two vowel letters after the letter c what about in precious in precious whoa we've got a lot of vowel letters there after the letter c so the rule here is two or more vowel letters if you look at the letter c and after the letter c there are two or three or sometimes four vowel letters that means we're going to pronounce it as sh sound sh i imagine if you want to remember this that the letter c is followed by lots of noisy vowel letters and it's it's saying be quiet to all the vowels that follow it shh to the a and sh to the i and sh to the o and sh to the u okay it's a good way that you might use to remember it c followed by many vowels is pronounced as a sh sound sh sound let's practice those words again special special financial financial precious precious and of course ocean ocean now there are some exceptions to this okay so be careful in words like conceal conceal you'll notice that there are two vowels after that c but we don't say conceal okay the rule is two vowels or more you should pronounce it as a shh sound but be careful there are some exceptions so always double check you can use websites like t.o phonetics okay that will give you the pronunciation of any word or you can look in a dictionary where they should have the ipa transcription and if you know how to read it you'll be able to see what the true pronunciation of any word is okay so be careful in words like conceal conceal you have the e and the a but it is still pronounced as a s not a sh okay make sure that you can hear the difference between those two sounds the first one and the second one they are very different sounds and there are lots of words in english where you do not want to get those muddled up for example in the word sit and the only difference in sound is one is and the other is okay so make sure you don't muddle that up especially again with the letter c okay a practice sentence with this way to pronounce the letter c is our oceans are precious and special our oceans are precious and special our oceans are precious and special okay try it with me our oceans are precious and special our oceans are precious and special make sure you've got lots of sh in there okay okay there are some special words in english that will allow us to practice all of these pronunciations or ways to pronounce the letter c a great one is pacific ocean pacific ocean is cool why because you'll notice that there are three c letters in these two words and all of them are different it makes the english language look a little bit crazy you've got pacific ocean let's have a little look closer at this pacific so here the c comes before the letter i what do we do when the c is before the i we pronounce it as a s a soft c sound okay persif persif then you've got another c at the end of the word and there's nothing after that c what do we do when a c is at the end of the word we pronounce it as a hard k sound pacific pacific pacific and then in the next word we have ocean the c is followed by the two vowel letters e and a what do we do when the letter c is followed by two vowel letters we pronounce it as a shhh ocean ocean okay let's practice that again can you say it with me pacific ocean pacific ocean pacific ocean the pacific ocean is special the pacific ocean is special why because it's the biggest ocean in the world the pacific ocean is special okay okay another great word that we can use to practice this in english is the word electric electric you'll notice in the word electric you have two c's you have a c before the t electric and then you have a c at the end with nothing after it what do we do hard again electric but the cool thing about this word is that we can change it it has many forms in english you probably know electric what about electricity so now it's changed now you'll see that in electricity we have an i after that c so it changes the pronunciation of the c it's not electricity it's electricity because that eye following the c has changed the pronunciation of the letter c electricity we also have the word electrical electrical electrical remember after after the letter c if there is an a we pronounce it as a k again so electrical so you've got electric finishing in a electricity with the nc as a s and electrical where it finishes in a hard again okay three words that are nearly exactly the same but the pronunciation of that letter c changes in nearly all of them okay we can make it a little bit longer with two words try this electrical accident electrical accident electrical accident here you've got elec hard and then you've got something interesting accident has two c's together so what do you think we do well let's follow the rules the first c is followed by what it's followed by another consonant the letter c so what do we do when c is followed by a consonant it's a hard c it's k so we have ack ack but then the second c is followed by the letter i so we have the soft s so here in the word accident we have ack si dunt okay accident we have both c sounds together so all together practice with me electrical accident electrical accident electrical accident one more and this sentence i hope is going to make your pronunciation of this letter perfect try this there was an electrical accident in the middle of the pacific ocean i don't know how but there was an electrical accident in the middle of the pacific ocean there was an electrical accident in the middle of the pacific ocean practice that one rewind rewind rewind and i'll let you practice that as many times as you need there was an electrical accident in the middle of the pacific ocean okay some more words that we can use to practice this are a chord and a claim a chord a claim you'll notice that these both have the strong k sound there's no soft s in both of these words why because if you follow the rules the last c is followed by an o in a chord and it's followed by an l or a consonant in a claim but in words like success success you've got suk suk suk which is a strong and then you've got ces s because the c is followed by a letter e success so here two different c sounds but in a chord and a claim just one sound okay so there's some important words to practice good for your english tests okay a little bonus to this lesson we're going to look at the silent c not very common in english okay you won't find this very much it's not so common like the silent a or the silent b but the silent c is found in weird places for example in words like crescent that moon the famous crescent moon crescent that c in there we don't pronounce okay we just pronounce the s scent crescent okay also in words like muscle muscle the c following the s we don't need the c we don't say muscle or crescent we say muscle muscle just pronouncing the s sound now there are cities and places in english that often have a silent sea especially in my country the uk england where i live there are places like leicester and gloucester and worcester okay and nearly all of these have a c in them that is completely silent okay lester you might know the the football club leicester city leicester gloucester worcester americans might tell you that there is a state in their country in the usa there is a whole state with a silent c the state of connecticut connecticut okay in there we don't pronounce or at least americans definitely don't pronounce that letter c they don't say connecticut at all it's a silent c so be careful in some place names in english you'll find that silent c probably the most common word with a silent c after the letter s again is in the word scissors scissors okay so you'll notice make sure you remember little rule if the c is after the letter s we don't need to pronounce both letters we just pronounce the first one which is a an s okay scissors muscle crescent okay that is the silent c okay you can practice it with a sentence i used the scissors to cut a crescent another word which we can find that has a silency is the word indictment indictment now if anybody knows what this word means can you write it in the comments i wonder new vocabulary for you today indictment indictment okay here you'll see the see before a strong t sound indictment okay indictment okay we're going to try some tongue twisters now and i want to do a little test for you so what i want you to do is to tell me how many hard cur and how many soft s you can write hard c and soft c in the comments how many hard c's and how many soft seas are in this sentence are you ready the cyclone circling the ocean came close to the city the cyclone circling the ocean came close to the city the cyclone circling the ocean came close to the city there is also a shh sound in there you can probably guess where but i want you to write the hard sea and soft sea in the comments okay practice one more time the cyclone circling the ocean came close to the city the cyclone circling the ocean came close to the city in the next one i want you to tell me how many hard tell me how many hard c sounds you can hear in the next sentence cook the coffee in the circular coffee cooking cup cook the coffee in the circular coffee cooking cup cook the coffee in the circular coffee cooking cup okay how many hard sounds and how many soft sounds are there in that sentence okay and the final one is a clever and crafty cat could climb the corner of the cafe conservatory lots of c sounds in there and there's lots of those hard sounds because i'm very tired a clever and crafty cat could climb the corner of the cafe conservatory a good way to remember that you're saying the sound correctly is that if you're saying many of them it makes you feel quite tired and out of breath because there's lots of and there's air coming out so you need to breathe in before you say it a clever and crafty cat could climb the corner of the cafe conservatory okay practice that put it on rewind until you've got all of the sounds complete watch this lesson again if you need to the more you practice the more easy the more natural and the more quickly you'll be able to pronounce all of those c sounds thank you so much for joining me again today and make sure that you hit that like and subscribe button if you enjoy my lesson so you don't miss all of the other lessons that are coming very soon okay thanks again and bye bye you

Channel: Easy ENGLISH with James

Views: 64,758

Keywords: British English Vowel Sounds, The Sounds Of English, Perfect English Pronunciation, english pronunciation, british english pronunciation practice, English pronunciation course, English pronunciation lessons, British Accent, received pronunciation, english vowels, english sounds, How to pronounce the letter C, Letter C British English, Hard C vs Soft C, /s/, /k/, /ʃ/, Consonant Sounds in British English, How to pronounce consonants, Letter C Pronunciation, Pronunciation Practice

Id: 175GEGC431w

Length: 31min 53sec (1913 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 04 2021