Teaching soft c, soft g, dge and tch
Aim: Spell soft c and g, and choose between dge/ge and tch/ch.
How to explain it
c and g usually make their 'soft' sounds, /s/ and /j/, when e, i or y comes next (city, giant, gym). Straight after a short vowel, the /j/ sound at the end of a word is spelled dge (badge, bridge) and the /ch/ sound is spelled tch (catch, kitchen). After a long vowel or another consonant it is just ge or ch (huge, bench). A few common words break the tch rule: much, such, which, rich.
Starter (5 minutes)
Show 'cat' and 'city', 'gate' and 'giant'. Children say what changes and look at the letter that comes next.
Main activity
Short or long? Children read -dge/-ge and -tch/-ch words and mark whether the vowel before is short or long, then sort them. Finish by checking the four tch exceptions and making a mnemonic for them.
Dictation sentences
- Catch the ball before it goes over the fence.
- The giant ate a huge slice of cake in the kitchen.
- We walked across the bridge to the city.
Watch out for
- Writing s or j for a soft c or g (sity, jiant).
- Dropping the d or t (bage, cach).
- Adding them after a long vowel (hudge).
Quick check
Ask children to spell these without help:
- fudge
- stitch
- cage
- circus
Example words
- city
- cycle
- circle
- giant
- magic
- gym
- bridge
- badge
- hedge
- catch
- kitchen
- watch
- huge
- page