The Soft C

"Dee! What on Earth is going on in here?!" "Oh. I am trying to soften the letter C." "You don't soften C by warming it up! You do it by putting certain letters after it!" Let's learn what Kala means by explaining the soft C. You may already know that the letter C says c as in cake, cot, click or cucumber. But, the letter C can also make another, softer sound. It can say s just like the letter S. But this doesn't happen all the time. It can happen when the letter C is followed by one of three specific letters. E, I or Y. Let's say them with Kala! CE, CI, CY, S. The E, I and Y work their magic on C, softening the sound it makes in a word. Let’s look at some CE examples! C says S in celery, face and ice because the letter E comes straight after the letter C in each of these words. If we read these words with the hard c sound, that would be incorrect. For example, kelery doesn't sound right. Now let’s look at some CI examples! The first C in circus and circle says S because the letter I comes straight after the first C in each of these words. The second C in both of these words still makes the hard c sound because other letters come after them. Finally, let’s look at CY examples! C says S at the beginning of cycle and the end of spicy because the letter Y comes straight after C in both examples. Now that we know about the soft C, let's try sorting words with hard and soft C sounds. The first word is cement, does this word have a hard or soft C? It has a soft C since it is followed by the letter E which makes it say S, cement. How about the word cat, does this word have a hard or soft C? It has a hard C since it is not followed by an E, I or Y. It is followed by an A, so it says c, cat. What about the last example, city? It has a soft C since it is followed by the letter I which makes it say S, city. Now that Dee knows the correct way to soften the letter C, let's remember! Today we learnt about the soft C which makes the sound S. C can say S when an E, I or a Y comes straight after it in a word. When it is followed by any other letter, the C makes the harder c sound. "Um, I will be right back, Kala." "Why? Where are you going?" “I need to get the letter G out of the bath.” "The bath?!” “Yes, I was trying to soften it too, but now I realise that’s probably not how you do it either.” "You are correct, Dee, but we'll talk about that another time!"