A crossword clue made me think about one of the many oddities of English spelling. The answer was the word impinged and part of the clue was a cryptic reference to the word pinged.
Impinged (past tense of the verb impinge) is pronounced with a ‘soft g’ /dʒ/, as in the consonants at the start and end of the name George. But pinged is pronounced with a ‘hard g’ /g/, as in the verb go. There is nothing in the spelling to indicate that the <g> spells /dʒ/ in one word but /g/ in the other word.
The problem here is a conflict between 2 separate spelling rules of English:
- in the sequence spelled <ge>, <g> is typically pronounced /dʒ/. So, impinge is pronounced /ɪmpindʒ/ and its past tense impinged is pronounced /ɪmpindʒd/
- in the past tense, the suffix pronounced /-d/ and spelled <-ed> does not typically change the pronunciation of an immediately preceding consonant. So, /pɪng/ + /d/ is pronounced /pɪngd/.
Spelling soft and hard g in Romance
The Romance languages have neat ways of using the spelling to show whether a <g> is pronounced ‘soft’ or hard’ before the front vowels /i e/. For the hard pronunciation, Italian and Romanian use <gh> and French, Portuguese and Spanish use <gu>. Romance languages: pronouncing C and G – Language Miscellany
It is a pity English doesn’t have a convention of this kind to show whether <g> and, indeed, <c> are pronounced hard or soft.
English spelling reform
In 2022, the English Spelling Society provisionally endorsed a new spelling system (TSR: Traditional Spelling Revised) which it hoped would ultimately eventually replace the highly irregular system used today in spelling English. I wrote about this system at New spelling may rool OK? – Language Miscellany
The document introducing TSR says that <gg> would always represent the sound /g/ in TSR. TSR would respell <-ange> as <-angge> in words where <g> is pronounced as /g/. Thus, <banger> and <hanger> would be respelled as <bangger> and <hangger>.
TSR doesn’t appear to mention words like pinged. Applying the TSR approach proposes for words in <-ange->, pinged could be respelled as <pingged>. That might be a hlepful change. On the other hand, the spelling of impinged wouldn’t change.
Looking at the English Spelling Society’s website on 6 June 2026, I could see no sign that TSR has gained any traction yet.