Spelling Rule-12: Rules to use C or K to pronounce K

Spelling Rule-12: Rules for using C or K to pronounce K

Before discussing this rule, first remember Spelling Rule-4: Two sounds of “C”, which says:

Spelling Rule-4.1: If /C/ followed by e,i or y sounds as /s/

Spelling Rule-12.1: If /C/ is not followed by e,i or y sounds as /K/ and can be used in place of /K/

Examples:

car

cash

cat

clap

clock

club

coin

corn

cot

crab

cross

crow

cut

cue

Spelling Rule-12.2: /K/ needs a back support to stand in the following formart:

1. consonant + K (Example: click, task)

2. vowel + vowel + K (Example: book, seek)

3. vowel + K+ vowel (Example: bike, cake)

Spelling Rule-12.3: First try to use C, if not possible use K

Example:

Konark- Try to use /C/ first- Conark- it became pronounced as /SONARK/ as per Spelling Rule: 4.1. So, use /K/

Examples:

Cup, Cat, Crown, Climb

Spelling Rule-12.4: To keep the short vowel sound and /K/ sound at after short vowel, use /CK/

Example:

attack, sack, snack, black, lack, flack, shack, whack, neck, wreck, heck, peck, sick, brick, click, flick, trick, lock, dock, block, rock, shock, crock, stuck suck, luck, muck, duck, etc.

Notice they all have short vowel sounds next to the -ck ending.

We also have words with more than one syllable ending with -ck and with the short vowel sound next to the –ck:

attack, Cossack, ransack, shamrock, shylock, paddock, gimmick.

Remember when we have a short vowel sound, we usually double up the end consonant when we add suffixes to indicate the short vowel sound (Spelling Rule-8):

sit sitting pat patter nip nipped.

Spelling Rule-12.5: To keep the short vowel sound, don’t double the /C/ or /K/ and use /CK/

Example:

attack, sack, snack, black, lack

Short vowel sound before –ck- in the middle of words:

jacket, package, packet, bracket, lackadaisical, lackey, mackerel, ticket, wicked, snicker cricket, picket, hickory, docket, hockey.

The exceptions to the single vowel + “k” endings are in foreign borrowed words: trek/trekking, anorak, Bolshevik, yak, yuk

Spelling Rule-12.6: In two or more syllables word, to keep the short vowel sound, use /C/ only instead of /CK/ to keep the word short.

Example:

2 syllables: magic, music, static, traffic, panic, frolic, mimic, picnic, critic, frantic, ethic, tonic, tropics, clinic, public, rustic, graphic

3 syllables: electric, acoustic, ballistic, dramatic, genetic, hysterics, politics, semantics, Atlantic, Pacific, mechanic, heroic, poetic, athletic, angelic, atomic, authentic, melodic, dogmatic, traumatic, erratic, eccentric, elastic, domestic, organic, hypnotic, fantastic

4 syllables: cybernetic, economic, mathematics, aromatic, problematic, periodic, sympathetic

Also we have some -ac ending. lilac maniac bivouac almanac zodiac

Important Note-1:

As, we dropped the /K/ to keep the word short, but when adding suffixes like -er, -ed, -ing, we again call the /K/ to keep the /K/ sound and to avoid /S/ sound.

picnic – picnicked, picnicking, picnicker

panic – panicked, panicking, panicky

traffic – trafficked, trafficking, trafficker

bivouac – bivouacked, bivouacking

Important Note-2:

When we add other suffixes we don’t add “k.” frolicsome, mimicry, picnics

We add –ally to –ic to make adverbs: automatic – automatically

frantic – frantically dramatic – dramatically

Spelling Rule-12.7: Never see -ck at the beginning of words

Spelling Rule-12.8: For long vowel sounds, use the silent-e rule and write /-KE/

Examples:

make, bake, cake, take, flake, awake, mistake, puke, fluke, duke, rebuke,