Hard and Soft Sounds of C and G Shortly after students learn the letters and sounds of the alphabet we teach them that the vowels and several consonants actually have two sounds. The consonants “c” and “g” are two of the letters that make different sounds depending on the letters that follow them in the word. Learning and teaching hard and soft sounds of c and g can be tricky, but these activities are sure to be a hit! Soft and Hard G The most common sound for the “g” is the “hard” sound as in the word “goat”.  However, if the “g” is followed by an i, e or y it makes the “soft” /j/ sound as in the