C is for Corn

 

A cache of corn cobs.

C is for collective nouns

Collective nouns help us to describe groups of things. These terms were originally created by hunters to allow them to describe their successes.

a clutter of cats

a couple of spaniels

a catch of fish

a colony of penguins

a quicksand of credit cards

 

Exercise

What is your favourite collective noun? How many can you think of?

C is for Car Park

On a sunny day, the car park by the beach fills early in the day.

C is for compound words

Compound words are a way of stringing two or more words together to create another word with a more exact meaning.

Sometimes compound words are just put together.

homecoming

Sometimes they are kept apart.

conga line, coral reef

Sometimes they are hyphenated.

counter-attack

A whole compound word means something different to the individual words or parts.

Exercises

1. Take a new passage or text from a newspaper, magazine, or book. Or, make a list of car parts.
2. Identify as many compound words as you can.
3. What do the words mean? Use each one in a sentence.
4. Break the compound words apart. How does that change their meaning?

C is for Cat

A domestic cat roams the streets of Toronto.

Prefixes

cir— or circ— stand for around.

circumference, circumstance

com— and con— stand for with.

combine, complete, compassion

conclave, conduct, conclude

co— means jointly.

coaxial, co-ed, cooperate

contra— means against.

contradict

counter— against, opposite, or in reply.

counteract, counterfeit, countersign

Suffixes

—aceae plant families.

Corylaceae [hazelnuts]

—ance, —ence  create a  noun describing a state or condition, or an action.

circumstance, continuance

conscience, dependence, emergence

Exercises

1. Do you know the meaning of each word? If you can’t figure it out, go to the dictionary.
2. Can you think of additional words with the same prefixes and suffixes? 

Special reading assignment

1. Crazy kings and queens can’t corral coral-coloured cows quickly.
2. The trouble with cats is that they’ve got no tact.                                — P. G. Wodehouse

 

Note: If you like cats and history, you may like to read the e-book, Edwardian Annotated Pets and How to Keep Them. This book discusses the origin of cats as pets, European wild cats, and also recommends how to keep a cat in 1907, Edwardian England.

C is for Columbine

The Garden Columbine blooms in many colours in spring and early summer.

Sounds of C

A hard sound, like K, when c comes before a, o, u, and consonants.

coffee, cupcake, school

A soft sound, like S, when c comes before i, e, y.

circle, celery, cyanide, recipe, fascinate

 A hiss sound, like sh, when —ci— (or sometimes —ce—) comes before a vowel, inside a word. [Infrequent.]

conscience, social

Exceptions:

These words do not have the sh hiss:

science; society

Silent Cs

Some words that derive from Middle English are pronounced the same as they always were, but the spelling was changed to add a c, similar to French or Latin, which were fashionable languages at the time.

indict, indictment, indictable offence

Other words were imported into English from another language.

yacht [Dutch], Tucson [Papago Indian]

 See also, Letter combinations (digraphs), below, for words containing sc.

scientist

Double Cs

English words with double consonants are inconsistent, so there is no reliable rule.

Usually, a double C serves to signal that the preceding vowel is short rather than long.

accord, accuse, occupy

Rather than a double C or a double K, a CK is commonly used. The hard C sound is preserved or emphasized, even when, with the following vowel (I, E, or Y), you would expect a soft C sound.

chicken, hockey, sticky wicket

Exceptions:

Sometimes a QU is used to preserve the hard C sound.

liquor, chequers (also, checkers [US])

Sometimes a double C is used in a word to express both a hard C and a soft C sound.

accent

Sometimes a single C acts like a double C.

crocodile, decade, second 

Letter combinations (digraphs)

—ch—

c and h together create a distinct sound, a digraph.

cherry, cheque, chi, chutney, church

Exceptions:

chemistry, crochet, chenille, Christ, chronology

—ck—

c and k together create a digraph.

brackets, crickets, flock, quick, rocket

—ct  is an uncommon letter combination

act, fact

—sc—, —sce

s and c together are a digraph that emphasizes the s sound.

abscess, acquiesce, descent, effervesce, fluoresce, muscle, rescind, scene, scent, science, scissors

Exceptions:

In these words, the s and c are both pronounced.

school, scholar, score, scream, scoundrel, muscular

Rules of pronunciation

i before e, except after c, gives us the sound of ee (or ē).

conceive, receive, receipt, retrieve

Exceptions:

science, hierarchy, diet 

Special reading assignment

 

1. Can’t you come to the cottage in October to check on the locks?
2. Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake.                   — Jim Davis

 

C is for Clover

Clover is found growing in fields and along roadsides.

Significance and history

C is a consonant [Con = with; son = sound; ant = causing] and may be spelled, “cee”.

C is a derived from the Greek gamma and the Semitic gimel.

The original meaning for gimel is “camel”. The Phoenician symbol was sideways, pointed up like a camel’s hump, but perhaps the original symbol was meant to be a throwing stick like a boomerang.

 As an abbreviation, C stands for Centigrade or Celsius; century; circa, or cubic.

The Roman numeral C is a symbol for 100.

cf.  stands for “compare”, from the Latin, conferre.

Special characters

© stands for copyright. A copyright statement consists of the copyright symbol ( ©  ), the author’s name or the publishers, and the date of publication.

© 1973, John W. & Sons, Inc.

Copyright © Charlotte Gray, 1999 

Exercises

1.  Can you think of any abbreviations or acronyms beginning with the letter C?