G (letter)

G is the seventh letter of the English alphabet. Its name is pronounced gee as in gee up.

Use in English

For GH in English see GH

G is pronounced in the throat, a voiced k as in kíng (compare gâte and Kâte: the accents show pronunciation: see English phonemes); or it is pronounced like j in Jûne (d followed by the zh sound).

Hard g, the voiced k: goòd, dóg, guàrd, gúm, ágony, guést, bíg, píg, wríggle, squíggle, égg, flág, ság, Péggy, regâle.

Words beginning with gu- plus a front vowel, e i or y, have the hard sound; the u is written to show this, and is itself silent: guîde, guínea, guéss, guést, guŷ, guílty (cf. hard final g followed by silent -ue in lêague, plâgue) - similarly hard gh- in ghôst, ghoûlish, ghāstly.

Soft g, sounding like j, found before front vowels e i and y medially often preceded by a d following a short vowel: George, gín, gŷroscope, géntleman, geriátric, giráffe, Gërmany, hédge, lódge, cúdgel, brídge, egrêgious, édgy, pâge, Nîgel, wâge. Soft g is rarely doubled: exággerate.

But g before e and i is hard in some words, often at the beginning: gíve, gét, gíbbon, gízzard, gíg, gíld gold (= guíld society), gíll fish (cf. soft g in gíll quarter pint), gíddy, begín.

G has the zh sound only in the name of the former French colony Nigér (*Nìzhér). Compare the name of the river and delta, also spelt Nîger, and the former British colony Nigêria, both of which have the normal soft j sound of g - and a different î sound.

Before suffixes, hard g is doubled to keep the preceding vowel short: dígging, pégging, lágging, fóggy, dóggie, dógged, béggar, rúgger and also finally in égg and in surnames: Clégg, Wrágg and Hógg, cf. the animal hóg.

There is a soft g in dúngeon, *dúnjən, and díngy dirty, *dínjy; dínghy boat has the ng sound, with or without a g sound following it, depending on the speaker. Hard g is gh in spaghétti, ghôul, ghôst.

G begins consonant clusters: glûe, ignŏre (g sounded, cf. gnôme garden = Nõme Alaska), grêen.

Although pronounced after the í in ignŏre, g is often silent before n (cf. k in knôw) initially: gnôme, gnåw, or, more often, medially after a long vowel or diphthong: sîgn (cf. sígnal, g pronounced) resîgn, desîgn, impûgn, dèign, rèign monarch (= râin wet), campâign, and after an unstressed vowel in fóreign; and sometimes, from French, -gne: champâgne, colôgne.

In the French ending -gue, the -ue is silent: lêague, intrìgue, plâgue, vâgue, Hâgue (similarly with -que).

It also combines to form the digraph GH.

See also

• Letter (alphabet)
• Alphabet
• Writing system
• Orthography
• Written language
• Writing