The letter “j” makes the /j/ sound when it comes before an “a,” “o” or “u” in a word that is most often Anglo-Saxon.
In English, there are two different sounds for the consonants "c" and "g." A hard "g" sounds almost like a "k," as in the words great, good, and pig.A soft "g" sounds more like a "j," as in the words large, general, and giant.By contrast, a hard "c" sounds like a "k," as in the words cup, class, and fact.A soft "c" sounds like an "s" as in city, receive, and cell. A vocabulary list featuring Soft G and Soft C. All of the words in the list have the soft C or soft G within them Words that Begin with the Letter G (soft /j/ sound): Activity Sheet: Modern Manuscript: Trace (print) the words that begin with the letter G. Activity Sheet: Standard Font: Trace (print) the words that begin with the letter G. Activity Sheet: Draw a line to the words that begin with the sound of G. All words containing DGE are listed here. There are five ways to spell the /j/ sound in the English language: j; g-dge-ge; d . abridge, abridged, abridgement, abridgements, abridger, abridgers... See the full list of words here! The three that come to mind are vision, pleasure, and treasure.

If the soft g sound appears to be a sound the student needs knowledge on, go to https://phonics-teaching.com and find & print the soft g words poster. Practice decoding the words with the soft g sound. Explore the poster together. (My native dialect is northern Ontario English, but I haven't noticed these words being pronounced differently in other dialects.)
There are English words that have the French 'j' sound, but without the letter 'j' itself. Let us look at each spelling and just when we use a particular spelling… 1.)

The letter “j” makes the /j/ sound. Similarly, soft g is sometimes replaced by j in some names of commercial entities, such as with "Enerjy Software", or "Majic 105.7" in Cleveland, Ohio and some names commonly spelled with j are given unusual soft g spellings such as Genna and Gennifer. In all three, the 's' is pronounced like French 'j'.