FlexiLingoIn one line
Before
eiythey go soft, before anything else they go hard. The letter in front plays no part.
The table
| Letter | + e i y | + a o u or a consonant |
|---|---|---|
g | /ʒ/ — like the "s" in "measure" — gigot âge | /ɡ/ — garage grand |
c | /s/ — cycle ceci | /k/ — café classe |
And one word can contain both:
garage/ɡa.ʁaʒ/ — the first is beforeaso it is hard, the second is beforeeso it is soft
English follows exactly the same rule and you already use it. Cat / city, got / gem, garage / general — hard before
aou, soft beforeeiy. So there is nothing structural to learn here. Only the output differs:
English soft French soft c/s/ — city /s/ — the same g/dʒ/ — gem /ʒ/ — no "d" at the start French soft
gis the sound in the middle of "measure" or "vision", not the sound at the start of "gem". That one adjustment coversâge,général,manger,rougeandJean.
When you want the sound but the next letter will not let you
Two tools, one for each direction:
| You want | The tool | Example |
|---|---|---|
g /ʒe/ to stay soft before a /a//o /o/ | insert an e /ə/ | nous mangeons /nu mɑ̃.ʒɔ̃/ nageoire /na.ʒwaʁ/ |
c /se/ to stay soft before a /a//o /o//u /y/ | add a cedilla: ç /se.se.dij/ | français /fʁɑ̃.sɛ/ ça /sa/ nous commençons /nu kɔ.mɑ̃.sɔ̃/ |
g /ʒe/ to stay hard before e /ə//i /i/ | insert a u /y/ | guitare /ɡi.taʁ/ guerre /ɡɛʁ/ |
c /se/ to stay hard before e /ə//i /i/ | write qu /k/ | qui /ki/ quelque /kɛlk/ |
English patches the same problem, just less tidily. It writes guess and guitar with a silent
ufor exactly the French reason, and it doubles up in noticeable and manageable — keeping anethat serves no purpose except to hold the consonant soft. That silentein "manageable" is the same device as the one innous mangeons. The only tool English lacks is the cedilla.
And this is what shows up in verb conjugation:
| Infinitive | nous | Why |
|---|---|---|
manger | nous mangeons | without that e it would be go and go hard |
commencer | nous commençons | without the cedilla it would be co and go hard |
Exceptions
| Exception | What happens |
|---|---|
gn has its own rule | /ɲ/ — montagne, neither "gn" nor "zhn" |
A cedilla before e/i is wrong | c is already soft there: ceci /sə.si/, not çeci |
The u in gu is not pronounced | guitare /ɡi.taʁ/ — unless it carries a diaeresis: aiguë |
ch is separate | /ʃ/ — chat. But /k/ in words of Greek origin: chorale |
cc has two sounds | accepter /ak.sɛp.te/ — the first is /k/, the second /s/ |
x | sometimes /ks/ (taxi), sometimes /ɡz/ (exemple) |
Examples
| French | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
garage | /ɡa.ʁaʒ/ | garage |
gigot | /ʒi.ɡo/ | leg of lamb |
guitare | /ɡi.taʁ/ | guitar |
café | /ka.fe/ | coffee |
cinéma | /si.ne.ma/ | cinema |
français | /fʁɑ̃.sɛ/ | French |
nous mangeons | /nu mɑ̃.ʒɔ̃/ | we eat |
nous commençons | /nu kɔ.mɑ̃.sɔ̃/ | we begin |
Common mistakes
| ❌ | ✅ | Why |
|---|---|---|
nous mangons | nous mangeons | Without that e the g goes hard |
nous commencons | nous commençons | Without the cedilla the c goes hard |
çeci | ceci | No cedilla is needed before e |
reading guitare as /ɡɥi.taʁ/ | /ɡi.taʁ/ | That u is only insulation |
reading cinéma with a /k/ | /si.ne.ma/ | c is soft before i |
reading âge as English "age" | /ɑʒ/ | French soft g has no "d" in front |
And why the rule exists at all
a sound change in Latin, a thousand years ago
In Latin c was always /k/ and g always /ɡ/. Then in the Middle Ages both letters went soft before the front vowels (e i) — because the tongue had to move forward to say "ke", and over time it moved so far forward that it arrived at "s".
The same thing happened in Italian and Spanish, but with different results:
| French | Italian | Spanish | Pronunciation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ce | "s" | "che" | "th"/"s" | /sə/ |
ge | "zh" | "je" | "kh" | /ʒə/ |
And English got the rule from French. The Norman conquest brought in thousands of words carrying this pattern — city, cell, gentle, general — and English generalised it across its own vocabulary. That is why the two languages agree on the rule and disagree on the output: English inherited the pattern, then let its soft g drift from /ʒ/ to /dʒ/. Words borrowed later, straight from French, kept the original — genre, rouge, beige, garage.
And the spelling froze before the change finished — which is why we patch it today with ç, u and e.
The practical point: this rule holds for almost every word. Meet a new one, apply it, and you will read it correctly.
One common exception: in second /sə.ɡɔ̃/ · seconde /sə.ɡɔ̃d/ · secondaire /sə.ɡɔ̃.dɛʁ/ the c before o is pronounced /ɡ/, not /k/. It is the only frequent family that escapes the rule — and since seconde means "second", you meet it daily.