The Complete Guide to English Spelling Rules

(^) Note that mathematicians and computer experts sometimes argue among themselves regarding the word
gigabyte. Since it does not come from the English word gigantic but from the Greek word gigas
(“giant”), it is properly pronounced with two hard g’s.
The words in this next group appear to be anomalies, but they actually form a special subgroup
composed of single syllable words that end in ing. No other letter is added to keep the g hard, even
though the suffixes start with e, i, or y.
(^) Apart from this handful of semi-hard ge and gi words, there are no other exceptions among commonly
used words.
Spelling rule #5: There are occasions when a word that ends in g must be followed by an i or an e. If
it is a hard g, then confusion might arise because the g would become soft. In such cases a u is added
between the g and the softening vowel.
The gu is used to keep the g hard, no matter what letter follows. A wide variety of words use the
gu, which can be found at the beginning of a word, at the end, and sometimes in the middle.
(^) It is obvious that at least half a dozen words in the list above do not really need the gu. For example,
the a in guarantee and in guard is not a soft vowel. Similarly, league and colleague do not need the ue.
However, some modernization has occurred. Over the past few years, many ogue words have lost the
ue and now end with a simple g: