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Unit 19: The soft g sound: ge gi gy words

Page 7 of 11

Unit 19: Soft g: ge, gi and gy words

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Page 7 of 11

Spelling ge, gi and gy words - the soft g sound

Think back - help with spelling rules To recap:

1. No English word ends in j - we always use ge.

2. Before the vowels a, o and u, the sound /j/ is usually spelled with the letter j:

January job jump

3. Before the vowels e, i and y, the sound /j/ is usually spelled with the letter g:

Germany giraffe gymnastics


Rule Breakers - these words break spelling rules  

1. Some words that originated in different languages are now common in our dictionaries. For example:

raj - meaning the British rule in India. It is a Hindi word meaning reign.

hajj or hadj - the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. It is an Arab word meaning pilgrimage.

2. A few words use ge or gi before o:

George pigeon legion region

Several words begin with the prefix geo (meaning 'earth') which should be said as two syllables: ge - o, so these words do follow the ge rule :

geography geology geometry geosphere

3. Some words do use the letter j, even before e and i (usually when the j is at the beginning of words).
These are the most common:

jealous jeans jeep jeer jelly Jennifer
jeopardy jerk jersey jet jetty Jew jewel
Learn the Words:
jiffy jig jigsaw jilt jingle jinx jittery
Learn the Words:

4. The suffix -ject (meaning 'throw') is always je:

eject inject object project reject subject
Learn the Words:

homophones - learn to spell similar sounding words Only one homophone from this unit:

Jim - short for James

gym - short for gymnasium

 My brother does not like being called Jim.

Get fit by working out at the gym.

You have not completed Learn the Words activities for each word list on this page.

next part of the spelling course
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suffix rules for -ge words.

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