Learn English: Does the C sound like S or K?

If you can't hear English around you every day, knowing how to say new words can be very difficult! There are so many words that begin with C in English, but it's hard to know if the C makes a sound like an S or a K. I am very excited to have figured out HOW you can know which sound the C makes! Watch this video to learn the trick and start pronouncing words correctly, then take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/learn-english-c...

TRANSCRIPT:
Hello. I'm not sick of jumping up and down. Are you? Let's do more. My name is Ronnie. I'm going to teach you something that I'm really quite excited to teach you. I'm a little bit insane. That's fine. For years, people have been asking me, "Ronnie, how do you know -- when you see the written letter C -- whether you say it like an S or like a K?" "I don't know. I have no idea." So then, I thought about when I was a child. How did I know that, for example, my country Canada is "k" and not "sanada"? Probably because I hear people saying "kanada" and not "sanada". So I had the advantage of listening to people speak English around me. You don't have that advantage maybe. So I have found it, the answer to this question that has been plaguing me for years. I'm going to share it with you. Please do not get as excited as I am right now. Do not jump. I dare you not to jump. So check it out, C pronunciation. Here we go.

Sometimes, it sounds like an S. But sometimes, it sounds like a K. How the hell are you going to know what to do? This is the game. So we have a beautiful list of vowels. So we have A, E, I, 0, U, and sometimes Y is a vowel. If your word has a C and an A for example, very basic, "cat". If your word has a C and an E -- for example "center", "cell", or "cereal", it's going to sound like an S. If your C word has C and A, it's a K. If your C word has an I, it's going to sound like an S. If it's followed by an O, it's a K. U, it's a K. And Y, it's an S. So let's check out our new theory.

If your word has C followed by the vowel E like this, this sound is actually going to be S, not "ch" or "k". We don't say "kenter", we say "center". Why? Don't ask me. I've just figured out how. And this word, "cell", like a cell phone, is actually an S. So it's also a homophone, meaning the word "sell" as in "to sell something to someone" has the exact same pronunciation as your cell phone. So you can sell your cell phone. Bad joke. You love it.

So "center", because we have CE, "cell" because we have CE, and delicious morning food, "cereal", because it has CE is always going to sound like an S. Yay.

Next one. C plus I -- for example, the word "city" -- because it's CI, it's going to sound like "city". We have to be really careful again between the S and the SH. It is a sound "s", not "ch". You don't want to say "shitty"; you want to say "city".

This word, "cigar", which is a big, fat cigarette -- "cigarette". Hello. It's an S word. -- is going to follow the S rule. Oh, "cilantro". Do you know what "cilantro" is? It's a really, really delicious herb. It is common in Mexico and in Thailand and in India. Delicious. Cilantro is an herb, and it makes an S sound because it's CI together. Cool.

Next one. These words have the CY. Now, like I said, sometimes, Y is a vowel. Now, before I get all crazy and freak out because this is amazing, we must understand one thing in English all the time. There are rules, and there are patterns or methods, but there are also exceptions to these rules and patterns and methods. So this is not 100 percent for all of the vowels and all of the time. But it's a really, really good guideline to help you figure it out.