Silent Letters Pronunciation Made Easy

Silent Letters Pronunciation Made Easy English is semi-phonetic, which means that the way a word is spelled can give clues to its pronunciation but can also be quite misleading. Often, the pronunciation of a word can be very different to what you might predict based on its spelling. One way English is semi-phonetic is the use of silent letters. Silent B We never pronounced the b in crumb. We stopped pronouncing the b in thumb and dumb before the Modern period. limb crumb dumbplumbercomb bomb thumbclimb tomb debt debtor doubt doubtful subtlesubtleness Silent D handkerchief Wednesday sandwich handsome Silent E atehope drive gave write sitehidebite The e is silent but it has an effect on the preceding vowel GH as F (not silent but weird) roughtoughlaughenoughcoughcloughdraught Silent K We stopped pronouncing the k at the beginning of words in the 17th century. knifekneeknowknockknowledgeknead Silent M The silentmin the Greek wordmnemonicwas never pronounced in English. mnemonic Silent N Then in words like autumn and column have never been pronounced in English, but reflect the original French spelling. autumnhymncolumnsolemn Silent P Thep in pneumonia has never been pronounced in English. However, thep in words likepsyche and psychologywere pronounced by educated people until the 18th century. psychiatristpneumoniapneumaticpsychotherapypsychoticpsychologistpseudonym Silent T Thet afters orf and beforeen stopped being pronounced in the Early Modern period. Thetat the end of words likerapport, gourmet,andballet reflect the French spelling and pronunciation. castlesoftenhastenfastenlistenoftenChristmaswhistlethistlebustlewrestlerapportgourmetballet Silent C musclescissorsascentmiscellaneousfascinatescenario Silent G The silentg after a vowel and before anm or ann comes from the French and Latin spellings of these words. They were never pronounced in English. champagneforeignsignfeigndesignaligncognacgnatgnaw Silent GH boughtthoughtdroughtthoroughboroughdaughterlightmightsighrightfightweighweight Silent H By the end of the 19th century, the only words in which it was permissible to drop thehand not be considered a defect of pronunciation were the loan wordshonest,honour,heir, andhour. Words likeherb,humour, andhumblecan be heard pronounced with a silenthdepending on the region in American English. honesthonourheirhourwhatwhenwherewhetherwhy Silent L We stopped pronouncing the L after a and before f, v, or k after the Middle English period. calmhalfwalkwouldshouldcouldcalfsalmonyolkchalkbalm Silent S islandisleislet Silent U guessguidanceguitarguestguildguard Silent W The w before r was no longer pronounced after the mid-16th century. The w after s in sword stopped being pronounced after the mid-17th century. wrapwritewrongwringwreckwrestlewristwhowhomwholewhoevertwoswordanswer The history of silent letters provided above comes fromWhy is English Like That? by Norbert Schmitt and Richard Marsden. If you are interested, you can buy it here. The two vowels illustration was drawn for me byNerio Byung Hyun Son in 2016. Learn to pronounce words with silent letters using text-to-speech The Easy Way to Learn to Pronounce Silent Letters Learning Activity Instructions:Try to pronounce the words listed above. Use the text-to-speech widget on theVirtualWritingTutor.comto check the pronunciation of the words you are not sure of. Please follow and like us: