well hey there i'm emma from
english in today's lesson we're gonna
have a little bit of fun
we are going to perfect your
pronunciation of
over 50 english words with silent
letters in them
silent letters are pains aren't they a
few weeks ago i shared a lesson of
over a hundred words all with silent
consonant letters in them
but today we're going to focus on silent
vowel
letters now i'm not going to lie english
vowels
and vowel sounds are definitely tricky
we have five vowel letters a e i
o and u and the letter y
the consonant y can sometimes represent
a vowel sound
too but we've got many more vowel
sounds in english right
and of course the same letter can
represent different
sounds often you see vowel
letters together in words even though it
only makes one
sound it's very confusing and as you'll
see today
sometimes vowel letters can be
completely silent
as well
so please please get ready to practice
out loud with me it will do you
absolutely no good watching you need to
get your tongue and your mouth
comfortable with the sounds that we're
making today and familiar with
what you see on screen
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[Music]
let's start with the letter a of course
we start with the letter a we always do
don't we basically we'd like bread to be
rolled down the aisle
despite the fact that that was a
ridiculous sentence
there are three examples of a silent
letter a in that sentence can you see
them
basically we'd like bread to be rolled
down the aisle
basically bread i'll
there are lots of times like in the word
bread and i'll
where a doesn't really need to be there
at all because it doesn't
affect the sound that we make bread
may as well be written as bread right
and i'll may as well be
i'll aesthetic doesn't need that a
either aesthetic the thing is
there's no real way of knowing until you
hear that word spoken
out loud or perhaps you check the
phonemic script
in any good dictionary if you've watched
this lesson
up here about english vowel sound
pronunciation then you'll be able to
recognize
exactly which english sounds are being
shown here
then you can feel certain that you're
correct in your pronunciation
that bread is pronounced bread
and not braid or breed
or bread there is
one silent a that you can definitely
rely on and that is
words that end in i-c-a-l-l-y
of which there are many just like
basically
the a is always silent in those endings
so when it's spoken naturally
it sounds like ickly
ickely rather than ically
listen you've got basically
logically politically
automatically specifically
now i want you to try a few with me okay
musically
frantically
chaotically
you got it fabulous
now the letter e is an interesting one
it's definitely the most
common silent vowel letter in english
and there are some useful not rules but
let's say guidelines to help you
pronounce words with silent e's in them
correctly
the letter e is usually silent when it's
at the end
of a word and one of the key
exceptions there is if the e is the only
vowel
sound in the word so for example
he she we
be me right if it's the only vowel sound
it's the only syllable
we need to pronounce it the rest of the
time if you see an
e at the end of a word then we don't
pronounce it
just like in the word taste you can see
that there are two
vowel letters in this word right here
and here taste
clue bake
imagine all of those words
have a silent e at the end we don't hear
it
but it is not completely pointless
that silent e does often change
the vowel sound that comes before it
and i've got a few examples to help you
think about this a little
so if we look at the word hop hop
as soon as we add that e to the end it
becomes
hope hope so that vowel
sound extends outwards hop
hope the same with hid
hid we add that e it becomes
hide hide
and sit becomes
sight sight
so that e although we don't hear it
specifically it does
impact the sound that comes before it
i've got a few more words with silent
e's to practice with you are you ready
try vegetable
vegetable so can you see where that
silent e
is you don't hear me say
vegetable just
vegetable try clothes
clothes this is definitely a tricky one
to pronounce
but we don't want to hear clothes
clothes is incorrect we only want to
hear
clothes clothes
bridge bridge
so it's not bridgey or bridge
bridge bridge just one syllable
and plaque plaque
or plaque depending on which native
english speaker you're talking to
i say plaque but it's definitely not
plaque or plaque
ah of course and the silent e
in ed endings in english the letter e
can often be silent when it's a regular
past tense verb all of those verbs end
in ed right in words like
phased side
played baked
asked
wrapped in all of those examples that
last
e is silent we don't hear it
and i know that this can be tricky for
some of you my spanish and my portuguese
learners in particular
but luckily for you i have a whole
lesson dedicated to
pronouncing past tense regular verbs
correctly
it's right up here if you want to head
to it i'll also link to it at the end
of this lesson now the letter i
is not usually silent but there are a
few common english words
where it is in words like
fruit suit
juice cruise
in all of these words we don't pronounce
that i sound so it's not
fruit or suet
or juice or cruise
okay we just use that ooh
vowel sound fruit
ooh fruit soup
juice
now the word parliament has a silent
eye as well parliament
that unstressed syllable in there
parliament
and business has a silent eye as well
business but what makes that word
even more confusing is that there is an
e sound in there though it's represented
by the letter
u practice saying it out loud with me
business business
business all right let's talk about the
silent letter
o we see it in words like enough
rough tough
i mean there are several silent letters
in each of those words right the silent
g the silent h but for the vowel sound
just a simple u would suffice wouldn't
it
i want you to practice out loud with me
enough
rough
tough now you've probably heard the word
people enough to know just ignore that
o right people
people people there's also a silent o
in leopard leopard
and jeopardy
jeopardy we usually say that
something is in jeopardy when it's in
trouble or it's likely to be
damaged it was in that moment he
realized his career was
in jeopardy was that a new word for you
well then let's see if you can use it in
a sentence
i want you to share that sentence down
in the comments with me
just to double check that you've got
that new word
how to use it and the meaning accurate
the security guard and his colleague
guessed whose guitar it was
hmm don't feel guilty if you can't guess
this one
you might need to be able to see it
before you can
guess it the security guard
and his colleague guessed whose guitar
it was
it's that letter u and that letter u can
be silent
in lots of english words really common
ones especially when it's after
g i want you to try these ones with me
guess guard
guide guitar
guilt tongue
colleague guarantee
okay listen up because i've got a little
bonus pronunciation tip here for you
she plays the guitar beautifully
wonderfully carefully
so what do you notice about all of those
those three words at the end there
beautifully
wonderfully
carefully i'm not pronouncing that you
am i and this is really common for
native english speakers to just
drop that little vowel syllable out of
there
when we're using words adverbs that are
exactly like this that end in f-u-l-l-y
we usually drop that u beauty
flee wonder
flea carefully
now it's not wrong to pronounce that
syllable
it's unstressed anyway but it's
definitely more natural
and relaxed to drop that extra little
syllable out forget that you
all right so now we've been through lots
of examples of silent vowel letters
in common english words now it's time
for some practice so i've got some
sentences ready and i want you to
practice
out loud with me okay
[Music]
he wrapped his mother's present
carefully so she couldn't guess what was
inside
you try it
he wrapped his mother's present
carefully so she couldn't guess what was
inside
they spilled vegetable juice all over
their new clothes
try it
they spilled vegetable juice all over
their new clothes
my colleague hasn't worn a suit since
she worked in parliament
four years ago try it
my colleague hasn't worn a suit since
she worked in parliament
four years ago they hadn't a clue that
he
basically tried to claim the cruise as a
business trip
your turn
they hadn't a clue that he basically
tried to claim the cruise as a business
trip
we're guilty because our laws weren't
tough enough
and now the leopards are in jeopardy try
it
we're guilty because our laws weren't
tough enough
and now the leopards are in jeopardy
yeah nice work we went through over
50 words with silent vowel letters in it
just then
not a complete list by any stretch at
all but we definitely ticked off
lots of the most common ones and this is
specifically
to help you sound more natural and
relaxed as you're speaking in english
get that pronunciation right
now if you enjoyed the lesson make sure
you let me know
by hitting the subscribe button giving
the lesson a like
i always love to hear your comments down
below make sure you drop one down there
and if you happen to miss my lesson on
silent consonant letters or maybe you
want to go back and you want to review
it again now that you've watched this
one
you can get that right here and you can
also find
my past tense verb pronunciation lesson
as well
just down there