A silent letter is the letter in a word that is left not pronounced. Did you know that about 60% of English words has silent letter in them?
Go over this list of silent letters and few sample words. Make sure to practice pronouncing each word.
SILENT LETTERS FROM A TO Z
A – artistically, logically, musically, romantically, stoically
B – comb, climb, debt, plumber, tomb, subtle, dumb, bomb, doubt, , numb, subpoena, thumb, womb
C – acquire, acquit, blackguard, Connecticut, czar, muscle, scissors, victual
CH – yacht
D – handkerchief, Wednesday (commonly said Wens-day), sandwich, edge, bridge
E – plaque. vegetable (veg’tab’I), bridge, clothes. When on the end of a word, it changes the pronunciation of the word, but the -e is silent.
F – halfpenny
G – align, alight, champagne, diaphragm, gnash, gnaw, high, light,reign, though
GH – right, drought, eight, weigh
H – choir, hour, honour, honest, herb, rhyme, rhythm, thyme, Thailand
I – business, parliament
J – (NONE)
K – blackguard
KN -words, the k is silent: know, knot, knee, knife, knight, knock.
L – calm, folk, salmon, almond, talk, walk, could, should, would, folk, half, calf
M – mnemonic
N – autumn, chimney, column, damn, damn, government, solemn
O– colonel, sophomore, opossum
P – corps, coup, cupboard, pneumonia, psalm, raspberry, receipt, coup
Q – (NONE)
R – butter, finger, surprise
S – aisle, island, debris, isle, patios, viscount
T – beret, Chevrolet, depot, listen, whistle, wrestle, trestle, mortgage, apostle
(When talking fast, the t is very lightly pronounced in words like Christmas, mountain and little)
TH – asthma, isthmus, north, Easter
W – who, whole, write, wrong, two, sword, wrist, answer
X – faux
Y – (NONE)
Z – rendezvous
g – sign, gnat, gnu, foreign
ACTIVITY:
1. Practice reading the words in the list above with your Phone English teachers.
2. Come up with your own list of words with silent letters from A to Z. Then practice pronouncing the words.
3. Use the listed words in sentences to practice your pronunciation and sentence construction.
