“Shh……Silent Letter Words…..
Hello everyone I am Niharika and welcome back to
a new lesson. In today’s lesson we are gonna look at “Shh… silent letter words. Now
what are silent letter words? The letters that you can’t hear, when you say the word,
but when you write it or read it, the letter is there, that’s English, quite confusing.
Well interestingly sixty percent of English words contained silent letter words. Wow!
So in today’s lesson, we are gonna look at the correct spellings and of course the
correct pronunciation of these silent letter words. And we just gonna look at five silent
letters in this lesson, that’s the letter “B”, letter “D”, letter “G”, letter
“H” and letter “K”. So let’s dive into these words and let’s learn how to
pronounce them correctly. Now the first one is the silent B, so when you say these words,
the letter B goes silent. Let’s see, the first one, Bomb, so many people when they
use or when they say this word, they end up pronouncing it as Bomb. What’s bomb? Now
here the last B goes silent. So the correct pronunciation of this word is bomb. You are
gonna skip pronouncing the last B. It’s not gonna be bomb, but it’s just gonna be
bomb. Let’s have a look at another word which is Climb. “I am climbing up the stairs”
or “she climbs up the stairs”. So it’s just climb. Again you are not gonna pronounce
the last B here, it’s not gonna be climb. It’s just gonna be climb. That’s the correct
pronunciation. Let’s have a look at another word, which is Doubt. “I have a doubt”.
Now if you look at the spelling, the B comes in the middle, but when you pronounce this
word. It’s just doubt, something like dout. You do not pronounce the letter B. Next one
Thumb, so many people pronounce it as Thumb, Thumbs Up. It’s not Thumbs up. It’s just
Thumb. Even the little kids, like you ask them, Oh honey, what finger is this? They
will go like Thumb. It’s not Thumb, you gotta correct them. The correct pronunciation
is Thumb. The letter B is silent. And then the last example that I have for you on the
board is Subtle. Again here the letter B which comes in the middle of the word. You need
to skip pronouncing that letter and the correct pronunciation of this word is Subtle. She
has a very subtle voice. So the correct pronunciation is Subtle. Now let’s have a look at some
words, which has the letter D, when you read it or when you write the word. But the moment
you pronounce the word, the D is gone. You do not pronounce that letter. So the first
one is, Handkerchief, so it’s just handkerchief. Well, handkerchief is the piece of cloth that
you use to blow your nose in, so that’s just handkerchief, it’s not hand kerchief.
But it’s just handkerchief. You do not pronounce the letter D. Another example, Oh! I am starving
and I need to grab a nice delicious sandwich. So it’s not sand wich. It is just sandwich.
Again you do not pronounce the letter D. It’s just sandwich; I am starving, could you please
grab a sandwich for me? That’s the correct pronunciation. The third one, the week, the
day of the week. Which is Wednesday. So any people make this mistake, they end up pronouncing
it as Wednesday. Well, it’s not Wednesday. It is Wednesday. You know something like,
but that’s not how you spell it. The spelling the correct spelling is this, however when
you pronounce this word, its Wednesday. Now let’s have a look at the letter G. The letter
G, the correct pronunciation of these words here is again saying good bye to the letter
G, so it’s like cologne. If your man stinks, he needs to spray some cologne, to smell nice.
So again the letter G here goes silent. It’s not cologne, but its cologne. That’s the
correct pronunciation. Another word, which is Campaign. We are campaigning for this new
product, so its campaigning. It’s a campaign. You do not say Camp again. That’s the incorrect
pronunciation; it’s just campaign, where the letter G goes silent. And then the other
example that I have here is Sign, well you need to sign these papers. So if you look
at the spelling, it is Sign, but the letter G is silent and the correct pronunciation
of this word is sign, you need to sign the papers. Now lets have a look at another silent
letter, which is H. H makes the sound of Huh. Now if you look at the words here, some of
the examples and the most common words that we use in our daily vocabulary, honest. Now
many people pronounce it as honest. She is such a honest girl. Honest that’s incorrect.
You need not pronounce this H here. The correct pronunciation of this word is honest. So it’s
just gonna be honest. She is such an honest person. It’s not honest. Another word, Honor.
She is my maid of honor. So again honor, the H here, which is at the beginning of the word,
goes silent and the correct pronunciation is honor. The maid of honor. Another one,
Ooh, just an hour left, just an hour left, it’s just hour, it’s not hour or haour.
Well, people have different pronunciations to this word, that’s absolutely incorrect.
The correct pronunciation of this word is hour. Again the H goes silent and then another
example that I have for you, wherein the H is in the middle of the word is, Anchor. Anchor
is someone, who anchors shows, TV shows or probably news channels. They are the anchors
and here again, if you see the H comes in the middle of the word, however it goes silent,
when you pronounce the word, it’s just gonna be, she is an excellent anchor. It’s not
anchor, but it’s just anchor. And then the last letter that I have for you, which goes
silent, when you pronounce the words is K and here are couple of examples for you, so
the first one is, Knee. Knee is the part of your body that joints your thigh and your
calve, so that’s knee. Now the correct pronunciation is knee, but the moment you look at the spelling.
It’s Knee, so you keep wondering why is it not Kanee? Well, it’s not kanee, but
it’s just knee. The letter K at the beginning of the word goes silent. Another one, I heard
a knock at the door. So it’s just knock at the door. But when you write it, don’t
just write it as nock, the correct spelling is with a K. But when you pronounce it, then
it’s just knock. The K is silent. Another one, Knife. Oh, I cut my finger with a knife.
So its knife, as a kid I used to always pronounce it as Kanife. Well, yes I did and my mom was
like, that’s incorrect. The correct pronunciation is knife. And I kept wondering, why is that?
That’s English. So again letter K here is silent and the correct pronunciation of this
word is knife and not kanife. Next one Knowledge. He has a lot of knowledge, why because he’s
intelligent. So knowledge its again, the K is silent and the correct pronunciation is
knowledge, with a N and not with a K. And then the last example that I have for you
is, Knuckles. Well, your knuckles, yes, so when you write it, you write it with a K,
but when you pronounce it. It’s not kinuckles. It’s just knuckles. The letter K is silent.
So these are few words that have the silent letters in it, keep practicing them, because
they are really common and they just come across in your daily conversation. And I’ll
be back with a new lesson soon. Till then you take care.