Saturday, July 28, 2012

Silent letters

Here is a list of common letter combinations with silent letters. This list contains most of the silent letters that give English as a second language students difficulties.
Silent B
B is not pronounced when following M at the end of a word.
climb, crumb, dumb, comb
Silent C
C is not pronounced in the ending "scle"
muscle
Silent D
D is not pronounced in the following common words:
handkerchief, sandwich, Wednesday
Silent E
E is not pronounced at the end of words and usually makes the vowel long.
hope, drive, gave, write, site
Silent G
G is not often not pronounced when followed by an N
champagne, foreign, sign, feign
Silent GH
GH is not pronounced before T and at the end of many words
thought, through, daughter, light, might, right, fight, weigh
Silent H
H is not pronounced when following W. Some speakers whisper the H before the W.
what, when, where, whether, why
Silent H
H is not pronounced at the beginning of many words. Use the article "an" with unvoiced H. Here are some of the most common:
hour, honest, honor, heir, herb
Pronounced H
H is pronounced at the beginning of these common words. Use the article "a" with voiced H.
hill, history, height, happy, hangover
Silent K
K is not pronounced when followed by N at the beginning of a word.
knife, knee, know, knock, knowledge
Silent L
L is often not pronounced before L, D, F, M, K.
calm, half, salmon, talk, balk, would, should
Silent N
N is not pronounced following M at the end of a word.
autumn, hymn
Silent P
P is not pronounced at the beginning of many words using the suffix "psych" and "pneu".
psychiatrist, pneumonia, psychotherapy, psychotic
Silent S
S is not pronounced before L in the following words:
island, isle
Silent T
T is not pronounced in these common words:
castle, Christmas, fasten, listen, often, whistle, thistle
Silent U
U is not pronounced before after G and before a vowel.
guess, guidance, guitar, guest
Silent W
W is not pronounced at the beginning of a word followed by an R.
wrap, write, wrong
Silent W
W is not pronounced with these three pronouns:
who, whose, whom

1 comment:

  1. Dear Mr/Ms Nenova, I am hoping to use this material for a CELTA assignment. could you tell me where you sourced this material and I can reference it appropriately..many thanks! Eric

    ReplyDelete

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