As posted earlier, choosing between the letters g and j in Spanish is no easy task, so here are some more tips to help you.
Use g with:
1. words that start with:
– gest-, gene- o geni-, except jenízaro (child born from parents of different nationalities) and jeniquén (a kind of plant): gesto - gestar – género - genétic
- leg-, except lejía (bleach): legendario – legislar – legítima – legionario
2. words ending in:
- gen, -gélico, -gético, -genario, -génico, -genio, -gésimo, -gesimal, -génito and their feminine forms, with the exception of jején and comején: origen – angélico – cinegenética – nonagenario – transgénico – homogéneo – primigenia – vigésimo – sexagesimal – congénita
- gente y – gencia: inteligente – agente – diligencia - indigencia
–gia, -gio, -gión, -gional, -ginal, -gionario, -gioso, -gírico and their feminine forms: magia – marginal – regio – legionario – legión – prodigioso – regional – panegírico
However, words that contain a hiatus are written with a j: bujía – herejía, etc.
- ígena, ígeno, -ígero, -ígera: alienígena – flamígero (flaming, blazing) – indígena – alígera – antígeno – oxígeno
4. The affixes:
- geo- or –geo, meaning “earth, land”: geología – geómetra - apogeo
- log- or –log- , meaning “study of, science”: logo – filología – lógica – biólogo – logopeda – analógico
- inge- or –inge, except injerto (graft) and injerir (to insert, not ingerir, meaning to ingest): ingenio – laringe – esfinge – ingenuo - meninge
5. Verbs ending in –igerar, -ger and –gir (except tejer and crujir and their derivatives): aligerar – rugido – proteger – emergencia – fingir – refrigerar
6. Some foreign words ending in g: airbag – camping – casting – doping – gag – piercing
See you next time!
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7 Comments
What is a hiatus?
Gracias.
Ricardito
Ricardito, a hiatus is a gap or a short pause (time).
Yes, Adir, I know that definition, but how does it apply to grammar?
In your article, you said:
“However, words that contain a hiatus are written with a j: bujía – herejía, etc.”
Thanks,
R.
No hiatus: bugia (wrong)
Hiatus: bujía (correct)
Text says words with hiatus are written with j instead of g. And if you realize they also are written with i tilde (í). If you pronounce the hiatus:
bu-jí-a
With no hiatus it would be bu-gia.
Do you know the difference now?
PS: I’m from Spain.
I noticed that for 4. The affixes- log- or –log- , meaning “study of, science”: logo – you have biólogo and logopeda. I thought that the ‘g’ sound was hard before an ‘o’
Ricardito, a hiatus occurs when two vowels that are next to each other are pronounced in different syllables. Not all of them are written with a tilde; that depends on the specific combination.
Fredericka, you are right, the sound is hard. However, the post deals with spelling, not phonology.