These are those letters in words which are not pronounced when we say the word. In other words, these letters or alphabets are written when spelling the word but not said out loud verbally. This is mainly because of the changes in pronunciation that the English language has seen over the centuries, in olden times the silent letters used to be pronounced and the spellings also varied greatly. On this page we have listed out the different types of silent alphabets and examples of the words they are used in.
The alphabet ‘B’ is not pronounced when it comes after ‘M’ in a word
- Climb
- Plumber
- Tomb
- Comb
'C' is not pronounced in words like
- Muscle
- Scissors
- Acquire
'D' is not pronounced in words like:
- Sandwich
- Wednesday
- Edge
The alphabet is not pronounced when it comes before ‘N’ or ‘M’
- Gnat
- Diaphragm
'GH' is not pronounced before 'T' and at the end of many words
- Rough
- Through
- Alight
- Light
- Borough
‘H’ is not pronounced when it comes after ‘W’
- Why
- Whether
- Where
Sometimes the ‘H’ is silent for some words, even when it is the first letter of the word
- Hour
- Heir
‘H’ is not pronounced when it comes before ‘Y’
- Thyme
- Rhyme
Whenever ‘K’ is followed by an ‘N’ at the beginning of a word, ‘K’ is not pronounced
- Knot
- Knight
- Knock
- Knowledge
‘L’ stays silent in most words when it comes before ‘D’,’ F’, ‘M’, ‘K’.
- Yolk
- Half
- Calm
- Talk
Should
‘N’ is not pronounced when it follows ‘M’ in a word
- Autumn
- Column
‘P’ remains silent when it starts a word and is followed by ‘sy’ or ‘ne’
- Pneumonia
- Psychotic
‘P’ is also not pronounced in certain words like
- Psalm
- Receipt
We usually avoid pronouncing ‘S’ when it comes before ‘L’ in words like
- Island
- Aisle
‘T’ is not pronounced in words like
- Castle
- Beret
- Listen
- Depot
- Whistle
- Gourmet
‘U’ is not pronounced in words when it comes after ‘G’ and is followed by a vowel
- Guess
- Colleague
- Guitar
- Tongue
We avoid pronouncing ‘W’ when it begins a word and is followed by ‘R’
- Wrist
- Write
- Wrong
‘W’ is not pronounced in these three pronouns
- Who
- Whose
- Whom
It is also avoided in words like
- Two
- Sword
- Answer
‘X’ is not pronounced in most words that have come from the French language
- Faux Pas
- Bordeaux
Silent Z
‘Z’ remains silent in the word
No comments:
Post a Comment