Mastering Silent letters in Spoken and Written English

How are you doing with the 'Master 1 New Word' challenge? How close are you to mastering 1 new word today?

Imagine if your English was better.

Imagine if you could speak to anyone in perfect English.

Imagine if you mastered English.

What you talk about?

What are you waiting for?

The world is waiting to speak to you in English.

Adrian

Master English, Discover the World

Which word will you master next?

1. Understand what silent letters are and how to work with the words that have them.

2. Learn the rules for when a certain letter may be silent.

3. Recognise what auxiliary letters are and how they change the words.

4. Know which letters could be silent based on regional differences.

5. Learn some small English language history as to where words come from.

There are lots of silent letters; letters you don’t say. Most words have one.

The letter by itself may make a sound, but in certain words it is silent.

Spelling can be a little hard, but when you know the patterns you can tell when the word has a silent letter.

Ballet

Head

Crumb

Over time the spelling stayed the same, as certain letters began to be silenced and not pronounced.

Condemn

If n is removed, it does not affect how it is said, but the spelling would be wrong.

Bomb

If the second b is removed it sounds the same too.

A, before or after another vowel:

Aisle, cocoa, head

B, after m, before t:

Crumb, limb, thumb

Debt, doubt, subtle

C, after s:

Muscle, scent, scissors

D, before or after n:

Wednesday, handsome, landscape

E, at the end of the word:

Giraffe, humble, love

G, before h, before n:

Daughter, though, weigh

Campaign, foreign, gnome

H, at the beginning of some words, after ex, after g, after r, after w:

Heir, honest, hour

Exhausting, exhibition, exhilarate

Ghastly, ghost, ghoul

Rhapsody, rhinoceros, rhyme

Whale, wheel, whirlpool

K, before n:

Knee, knight, know

L, before d, before f, before m:

Could, should, would

Behalf, calf, half

Almond, calm, palm

N, after m:

Autumn, hymn, solemn

P, before n, before s, before t:

Pneumatic, pneumonia, pneumonic

Psalm, psychiatry, psychology, psychic

Pteranodon, pterodactyl, receipt

T, before ch, after s:

Catch, stretch, witch

Castle, Christmas, listen

U, with other vowels:

Building, court, guess

W, before r, with s or t:

Wreck, write, wrong, wrist

Answer, sword, two

These are letters that if they are removed then the word meaning changes.

Coat

Cot – without the a

Cat – without the o

Kite

Kit – without the e

A, after o:

Boat, coat, goat

B, after m:

Climb, comb, tomb

C, before t:

Indict

D, before g:

Badge, dodge, judge

E, at the end of a word:

Hope, kite, site

G, after i and before n, after i and before m:

Benign, design, sign

Paradigm

H, after c

Ache

I, only in one word: business

L, before k, before m:

Folk, talk, walk

Calm, palm

S, after i:

Aisle, island

W, before h:

Who, whom, whose, whole

People from two different parts of the UK might say words different.

The - Wolverhampton

Th’ – Leicester

Better

Better – most do not say the r

So, depending where people are from, they may make these letter silent or not when speaking.

H, before e, after w:

Herb

Which, whip, whisky

R, after a vowel:

Born, car, star

T, before or after another consonant:

Often, fasten, tsunami

Some words that have silent letters often come from the same place.

Old Norse words, from Norway:

Knife

Knock

Anglo-Saxon words, from Germany:

Bright

Daughter

Night