Hard C Soft C Words

Here is a list of Hard C & soft C words. It includes the hard C soft C themed 2nd grade spelling list.

Hard C Soft C Rule

The general rule is:

If the vowel after the C is A, O, or U, the C has a hard sound. If the vowel after the C is E, I, or Y, its sound is soft.

A Silly Trick

To help my daughter remember which vowels make the C soft or hard, I came up with a bit of a silly saying. It’s silly but it does help her always remember which vowels are which.

We call them “Riley” letters. “There’s a little girl named Riley and she’s so soft and sweet, everybody else is hard.”

The vowels in the name Riley are I E and Y. They make the C soft. All the other vowels A, O & U make the C hard.

The same rule also applies for the letter G, and also both C and G in french as well, so it’s a rule she’s had to learn well.

If you have any tricks to remembering the rule, feel free to share in the comments below.

Hard C Words

Here is a list of hard C words:

CA words

cake
calm
camel
castle
car
card

CO words

cobra
cold
comb
cone
corn
cotton

CU words

cub
cube
curb
curl
cup
curtain
curve
cut

Soft C Words

Here is a list of soft C words:

CE words

bounce
celery
cell
cement
cent
cereal
cedar
ceiling
celery
cement
center
dance
face
fence
ice
juice
lace
lettuce
mice
police
price
princess
rice
sentence
slice
space
trace
twice

CI words

acid
cider
cinema
cinnamon
citrus
city
decide
icing
pencil
recipe

CY words

cyan
emergency
fancy
icy
juicy
mercy
spicy

On the left we have images of soft C words: celery (CE), pencil (CI), and icy (CY). The right side has pictures of hard C words: car (CA), corn (CO), and a cup (CU). In the middle there's a picture of a circus, which is a word that has both a hard and soft c.

Hard C and Soft C Words

Some words have both a hard C and a soft C. Here are some of those words:

cancel
circle
circus
concern
concert
cycle
cyclone
circumstance
inconvenience

Hard C / Soft C Spelling Words

For those doing 2nd grade spelling words, here are the hard C and soft C spelling words for week 9:

Hard C

because
cake
care
cook
cry

Soft C

city
nice
place
race

Hard and Soft C

circus

Review Words

Here are the optional review words, or words previously learned, that you can include as a review in this week’s spelling if you so desire. They all are hard c & soft c words.

Grade 1 Review Words

cell – (Week 25)
clown – (Week 31)

Grade 2 Review Words

corn – (Week 2)
count – (Week 5)
came – (Week 7)
case – (Week 7)

Here’s a fun hard c soft c word search perfect for 2nd graders learning the two sounds the letter C makes.