Usually before e, i or y

One-syllable-age endingTwo-syllableLonger wordsRarely before other vowels
age  
cage
gel
gem
gents
gist
gym
huge
page
rage
sage
stage
wage
advantage  
average
baggage
bandage
beverage
blockage
bondage
breakage
cabbage
carnage
carriage
cartilage
coinage
cottage
courage
coverage
damage
digest
disadvantage
discourage
disparage
dosage
drainage
encourage
envisage
foliage
footage
forage
frontage
garbage
gerbil
heritage
homage
image
language
leakage
leverage
linkage
luggage
manage
marriage
message
mileage
orphanage
package
parentage
passage
patronage
peerage
percentage
pilgrimage
pillage
plumage
postage
rampage
ravage
rummage
salvage
sausage
savage
sewage
shortage
shrinkage
silage
slippage
spillage
stoppage
storage
suffrage
tonnage
tutelage
usage
vantage
vicarage
village
vintage
voltage
voyage
wastage
wreckage
agent  
agile
angel
clergy
danger
digit
edgy
Egypt
elegy
engine
fragile
gentle
germ
German
gerund
gesture
giant
ginger
ginseng
gyrate
ingest
legend
logic
magic
margin
merger
sludgy
stingy
tragic
urgent
allergic
allergy
analogy  
anthology
apology
astrological
biologist
biology
cardiologist
climatology
cosmologist
ecologist
ecology
eligible
emergency
energy
engineer
entomologist
etiological
etymologist
fugitive
genesis
gelati
generate
genius
geological
geologist
geology
gymnasium
gymnastics
gyroscope
ideology
illegible
imagination
legislature
lethargy
liturgy
metallurgy
musicologist
mythological
mythology
neurological
origin
original
ornithologist
oxygen
paraplegic
pathological
prodigy
quadriplegic
radiology
refugee
strategic
surgical
synergy
tautology
technological
trilogy
Vegemite
vigilant
gaol  
margarine
veg

5 responses to “g as in gel”

  1. Chris Guy says:

    Hi Alison sorry to bug you! I have a question about words like religion, region, legion – how would you suggest teaching these?

    • alison says:

      After I have taught the main spellings for all the vowel sounds, I usually go through the consonants and unless they only have one or two main spellings, teach variations for each one. In this instance the sound is /j/ as in jump, and I’d ask the student(s) to tell me lots of words containing this sound, and write them out and get them to sort the into groups. I’d make sure that a few words like region and religion are in the mix, and these would form a “gi” group, I have a list of the words I know like this here: https://www.spelfabet.com.au/spelling-lists/sorted-by-sound/j/gi-as-in-region. If you want to prepare this sorting activity ahead of time you can select words from each of the lists here: http://www.spelfabet.com.au/spelling-lists/sorted-by-sound/j/, write the words on cards or slips of paper and hand them out, and then as students find new spellings they can add new headings.

      We generally pronounce the letter G as “j” when it is followed by E, I or Y, so in these words the letter “I” helps clarify this pronunciation. If “region” had no letter “I” we would be inclined to pronounce it rhymed with “vegan”. Similarly, we use the spelling GU in quite a few words to clarify that the pronunciation is /g/ not /j/ e.g. guitar, guess, disguise. Hope that all makes sense. All the best, Alison

  2. vihaan.srivatsa says:

    What a about gelato?

  3. Cindy says:

    Is there a rule (pattern?) that says the letter g in a split digraph softens to a /j/? My year 2’s asked this after they noticed the split digraph when encoding stage, page and huge in one of our phonics lessons this week.

    • alison says:

      The letter G is usually pronounced /j/ before front-of-mouth vowels, which are written with letters E, I or Y, as in ‘gel’, ‘gist’ and ‘gym’, but it usually represents /g/ before back-of-mouth vowels, which are written A, O and U, as in ‘gas’, ‘got’ and ‘gut’. This is similar to the pattern for C representing /s/, as in ‘cell’, ‘city’, ‘cyan’, but it’s /k/ in ‘cat’, ‘cop’, ‘cut’, though G is much less consistent than C (think ‘get’, ‘girl’, ‘muggy’). If you really want to impress your Year 2s you can explain the historical reasons for this, there’s a great podcast about the letter C here: https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2012/07/17/episode-5-centum-satem-and-the-letter-c-2/. C and G are closely related etymologically, I can’t remember whether letter G gets a mention in this particular episode of the podcast.

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