
Originally Posted by
Buddhaheart
Additionally, one might want to observe the following generalizations (rules):
1. If ‘e’ follows ‘g’ and it appears at the end of a word or syllable, it’s pronounced /¥/ in loan words like ‘garage’, ‘rouge’. It may also be pronounced as /dz/ as in the above examples and those cited by Anglika & others.
2. Retain the hard ‘g’ even if ‘er’, ‘ing’ or ‘y’ is added to the word.
Ex. digger, bagging, baggy.
Exceptions: exaggerate, suggest.
3. The ‘g’ at the end of a word is usually represented by the hard sound.
Ex. drug, dig, big.
4. When ‘d’ is followed by ‘ge’, the ‘d’ is silent.
Ex. bridge, badge, ledge.
5. At the beginning of a word or syllable, ‘gh’ usually is represented by the hard sound but silent if it’s at the end.
Ex. ghost, ghastly; though, dough.
6. ‘g’ is hard before ‘ui’, ‘ue’ & ‘ua’ and the ‘u’ is silent but it may also be pronounced as /gw/.
Ex. guilt, guess, language, linguist.
7. ‘gue’ at the end of a word is usually hard and 'ue' is silent.
Ex. plague, dialogue, vague.
Exceptions: dengue
8. ‘g’ is silent in ‘gm’ or ‘gn’.
Ex. gnaw, gnome; assign, campaign.
There’re of course many other rules to be formulated and they’ll always be exceptions.