There are many things about the English language which make it tricky to learn
and one of the most common things
that English learners struggle with is its phonetics and pronunciation.
Take a look at these words, for example:
How would you say these words?
Debt... Muscle... Yolk
Did you pronounce them correctly?
These are just 3 of many difficult words to pronounce in English.
Why?
Because they all have silent letters!
Today, we are going to look at some of the most common words with silent letters in English
and I will teach you a few general rules
to help you remember how to pronounce these words correctly.
After this video, you will be an expert at pronouncing these words!
Let’s go…
Letter A: Look out for the suffix -ALLY
Let’s look at our first set of words:
In these words, the letter A is silent.
Notice that all of these words have the same ending.
So, as a general rule, for lots of words that end in A L L Y the A is silent.
So, it isn’t "LogicAlly" - it’s "logically."
Let’s practice pronouncing the rest of the words.
Repeat after me:
“musically”... “romantically”... “artistically”
Silent B: M+B or B+T
Now let’s move on to words with a silent B. Can you think of any?
Now, a general rule you can follow for these is:
If the B is preceded by the letter M or followed by the letter T, then the B is silent.
Let’s look at some examples:
Climb, numb, thumb
Debt, doubt, subtle
Silent C: S+C
Look at these words.
Which letter is silent in all of them?
Scissors, muscle, scene
If you said the letter C, well done! You are correct!
As you can see from these examples,
if the letter C is preceded by the letter S, then the C is silent.
Silent G: G+N or "vowel + GH"
Now let’s look at the letter G.
If it is followed by the letter N,
then we don’t pronounce it. The G is silent.
Like in:
Sign, align, design
Also, for many words with GH,
the GH is silent if it comes after a vowel.
Though, high, light
Silent H: W+H but also at the beginning
Let’s move on to the letter H.
It is often silent.
Especially if it comes after a W,
like in: Why, where, when
But also, the letter H can be silent at the beginning of English words like:
Hour or honest
Note that this is a very common mistake among English learners,
as we do also have words in English where the H at the beginning of the word is pronounced,
such as in: heavy or healthy.
So be careful with these!
Silent K: K+N
Time for the letter K.
We have a few words with a silent K,
when the K is at the beginning of the word.
Knock, knees, knife, know
The rule to follow here is simple.
If the letter K is followed by the letter N, then the K is silent.
Silent L: O, A, U + L
Silent letter L is something that many of my students make mistakes with!
Let’s look at some examples:
Yolk, walk, half, would
Generally, if it comes after the vowels A, O, or U, the L is silent.
Can you think of any other examples like this,
with a silent L, that comes after one of these vowels?
Write your examples in the comments.
Silent N: M+N at the end of the words
The next silent letter we are going to look at is the letter N.
This is often silent if it's placed at the end of the word,
particularly if it comes after the letter M.
For example:
Autumn, damn, column
Silent T: Learn the most used words
The letter T can also be silent.
Like in:
Soften, listen, Christmas
Ballet, gourmet, often
(Although this can be pronounced "often." And this is also correct!)
Unfortunately, there are no specific rules for the silent letter T.
So the best thing to do is to just learn the most common words and memorize them.
Remember: if you are using MosaLingua,
you have flashcards to memorize the pronunciation of these words!
Silent U: Another tricky one
Let’s move on to the letter U.
Now, this is actually silent in many words,
although unfortunately, like the letter T, there is no specific rule.
Guitar, guess, guilt, tongue
Make sure you memorize these ones!
Silent W: W+R
Finally, the letter W.
If it is followed by the letter R, it is silent.
Like in: Write, wrong, wrist
But it can also be silent in other words, such as:
Who, whole, two,
answer, sword.
I hope these general rules for letters will help you to know
if they are silent or not.
We do also have some other common words with silent letters,
which I recommend you to learn and memorize,
such as:
"Island," with a silent S.
"Receipt," with a silent P.
And "bridge," with a silent D.
Remember, that these words are not the only words that have silent letters in English.
There are many more.
But these common words and general rules are a good place to start!
If you can think of any other examples, please leave them in the comments below!
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