[General] G :)

[Walle6422]

Hi ya.
Is there any rule to know when to read G as fragile (dʒi) (energy, anthology, challenge, change) and as go (ɡəʊ) (gary, gas, goodbye, borrowing, government)
any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
:up:

 

[BobK]

Hi ya.
Is there any rule to know when to read G as fragile (dʒi) (energy, anthology, challenge, change) and as go (ɡəʊ) (gary, gas, goodbye, borrowing, government)
any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
:up:

In short, no. It is generally true that before a written 'e' or 'i' or 'y' 'g' represents /ʤ/ (note that this is a single phoneme, not /d/+/ʒ/), and that before 'a' 'o' and 'u' it represents /g/. But there are many exceptions.

(There is no /g/ in 'borrowing', although native speakers with a northern origin often give it one - so you may have had a teacher who did this.)

b

 

[BobK]

PS ...And the 'g' is [almost?] always hard before a consonant.

Some exceptions to the rule: a chicken has both 'giblets' (/ʤ/) and a 'gizzard' (/g/). 'Geyser' and 'gynecology' also have /g/. There are several others.

b

 

[Raymott]

PS ...And the 'g' is [almost?] always hard before a consonant.

b

Yes, I think so. Except before 'n', when it is silent: gnome, gnostic ...

 

[Walle6422]

Thank you for your comments. Makes sense more or less.
By the way, do you think you could suggest me something to improve ING pronouncing.
You were right, I've been taught not correctly about 'ing', and I found hard to work on it, to pronounce properly. is there any exercises or anything?
Thanks again.

 

[BobK]

I compiled a list once, for a student, of contrasting '-ing-' words: singer, ringer, winger ... etc (/ɪŋǝ/), as opposed to linger, finger...etc /ɪŋgǝ/; I'm not sure whether it included yet another case - ginger, harbinger ...etc - but not so many (/ɪnʤǝ/). As I've said before - I sure am glad I don't have to learn this stuff!

I'll post it if I can find it. It's not an exercise for you to practise, but you may find it a useful reference.

b

 

[raindoctor]

Check this site: Hou tu pranownse Inglish

There is a diachronic process called "velar softening". Velar (back) consonants + front vowels went through softening. It is an instance of palatalization. As BobK pointed out, it happens before front vowels, which are represented by graphemes such as e, i, y.

 

[BobK]

Here's the list I mentioned.

b

PS I hate nfire: this new interface. Support thread started Sorry for the felay - I have the file here.

 

[Walle6422]

Thanks very much for your comments and suggestions, everybody.
This how to pronounce English page sounds.
Excuse me, BobK. I could't find the list you had mentioned. Do you think you could make it clear where you had attached the list?
Thanks a lot.

 

[BobK]

Thanks very much for your comments and suggestions, everybody.
This how to pronounce English page sounds.
Excuse me, BobK. I could't find the list you had mentioned. Do you think you could make it clear where you had attached the list?
Thanks a lot.

I haven't posted it yet. I tried. Uploads are working now, so I'll post it next time I'm at my desk.

b

 

[BobK]

Here ir is.

b

 

[5jj]

Thank you for that. I'll offer you 'harbinger'.

 

[BobK]

Yes - I mentioned that in post #6 of this thread. The doc didn't aim to be comprehensive, and there are enormous numbers of gaps - especially among longer words. Another long one - probably not in the list of most useful words for an EFL student (;-)), is 'humdinger' [which, unlike 'harbinger', has a plain /ɪŋǝ/]

b

 

[5jj]

Yes - I mentioned that in post #6 of this thread.

I thought I'd seen it somewhere recently.

 

[Walle6422]

Hi BobK.
Thanks very much for the list.
Take care

 

[meskete]

Lots of Germanic and old words - important and common ones have g before e or i: give, get.

 

[BobK]

Lots of Germanic and old words - important and common ones have g before e or i: give, get.

:up: As a matter of fact, when I first made the list it was an answer for a German-speaker who wanted to know if there was a raule. ;-)

b