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Let us take, ginger, we actually pronounce it as /ˈdʒɪndʒə/ (jinjer). But take, giggling, we pronounce it as /ˈɡɪɡ(ə)lɪŋ/. There are numerous examples of this, and this confuses me a lot. So, how do I know which pronunciation in these kinds of words is actually correct?

Mari-Lou A
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Sawarnik
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    English orthography does not attempt to represent the sounds of English speech in any kind of one-to-one relationship. There are quite simply no hard-and-fast rules. Also, unless by ginning you’re referring to the archaic, poetic variant of beginning, that too is pronounced as ‘jinning’. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Feb 20 '14 at 17:15
  • I don't know what "ginning" is, except as related to the word "gin" in which case it is also pronounced with a "j" sound. – Digital Chris Feb 20 '14 at 17:15
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    @DigitalChris - 'ginning' could be running a load of cotton through a cotton gin. As to the rest, I know of no rule as to when g's are hard or soft. – Oldcat Feb 20 '14 at 17:51

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There are no strict rules for when the letter <G> is pronounced /dʒ/ as in ginger and when it is pronounced /g/ as in giggle. In general, it is more likely to be pronounced to /dʒ/ if it is followed by <I>, <E> or <Y>, but there are many exceptions.

If you're unsure about a word, you have to look it up in a dictionary and memorize it.

nohat
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  • Letters are not pronounced; letters are read. It's phonemes that are pronounced. If you stop thinking of letters as representing sounds, you'll do better. – John Lawler Feb 20 '14 at 18:33
  • @JohnLawler this is a distinction I long ago gave up on trying to make for a nontechnical audience. Insisting on making it just makes you sound cranky – nohat Feb 20 '14 at 18:35
  • So continue, if you like. Nontechnical audiences don't deserve to know facts, after all; they're content with their prejudices already. – John Lawler Feb 20 '14 at 18:39
  • To my mind, someone who is asking about which pedal makes the car accelerate and which makes it slow down doesn't really need a preliminary lecture on relativity or how internal combustion engines work. – nohat Feb 20 '14 at 18:44
  • Just my take: John Lawler's comment about phonemes is what makes this a so-called ELU question. If the answer is a mere "check the dictionary; that's the only way to know for sure," then this may as well be migrated to [ell.se]. – J.R. Feb 20 '14 at 19:28
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    I asked a question previously http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/88238/do-hull-and-full-rhyme-rules-for-short-u-sounds-before-l and the answer was that there is a way to guess based on spelling whether the vowel from a word with UL would be STRUT or FOOT. Sometimes there is a way to predict; sometimes there is not. – nohat Feb 20 '14 at 23:10
  • Actually, letters began by representing sounds. It was thought that you needed different letters to represent different sounds, for that reason we have the Cyrillic alphabet. At some point it was realized that Roman letters, with modifications, can express sounds in any language, even tonal languages (this is a broad statement and given the variety of languages, let's say it's at best 90% correct). It is because of this anomaly that it wasn't until the 12th century that a sorting device now known as alphabetical order could be used to sort information. – user26732 Feb 21 '14 at 13:20
  • The spelling of an English word is a merely a clue hinting to its actual pronunciation. – Mark Beadles Apr 02 '18 at 22:22