Beginner Stage 2: Soft Letters

Which are "soft" and "hard" letters?

G and C are soft and hard letters. The vowel following it determines if it's hard or soft.
e, i, y-soft
a,o,u -hard
English has soft and hard too, but it doesn't make as much sense.
Gall-hard (sense)
Gentle-soft (sense)
Center-soft (sense)
Celtic-hard (NONSENSE!!!!)
Get-hard (NONSENSE!!!!)

Thankfully French follows its rules.
The HARD will be JUST LIKE ENGLISH!!

Hard (examples. Letter u is ommitted for g, look further down as to why):
Ga
Go
Ca
Co
Cu- [kew. kewl

Soft

Kind of like the sensible Soft in English.(Remember, these are the prononciations for the c's and g's.)
ce- [ss. Center] Remember, the pronunciation changes according to which e, but it's still "ss"
ci- [ssee.Si (spanish)]
cy- same as cy (the difference between y and i is explained later on)
The soft g in French is pretty much like the soft g in english, except there's no "d" sound at the beginning of the consonant. ge- [zhe. Jolie (Angelina, the actress). Remember, the pronunciation changes according to which e
gi- same as ge, except it's with "i"
gy- same as gy (the difference between y and i is explained later on)

Similar letters

k- just like English and Hard C
q- Just like English k and Hard C

About the letter u with g and q

Putting a u after the letter g can do THREE things.
1. It'll put the sound "u" after the g (like in english...). This is IF the u is followed by a consonant(or nothing).
2. It'll make a "wha" sound (like in English) if it's followed by a Hard vowel (a, o). (Like Guadaloupe in English).
3. It'll be silent if it's followed by a soft vowel, but then the g will be hard....

What that means is.

Gu_consonanant: example. Gur, r is a consonant. This will be pronounced Gewr. (Just like Guru in English, but with a French "U")
Gu_hardvowel: example. Gua, Guo. like I said, like Guadaloupe.
Gu_softvowel: example. Gue, Gui, Guy. In English it'd be like Get.
So, the French word GUEPE would be pronounced, GUE - PE. Which would be [Ge]-[P] (in English)