Silent Letters
Phonetics S2
English lecture S2 #1
By Chaouli Mohamed
For 1st year ST students
Djelfa University –2020/2021
Course plan
1. Definition
2. Different Kinds of Silent Letters
3. Rules for Silent letters
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1. Definition
A letter that is usually left unpronounced, such as the b in
subtle, the c in scissors, the g in design, and the t in listen.
According to Ursula Dubosarsky, roughly "60 percent of
words in English have a silent letter
in them" (The Word Snoop, 2009).
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2. Different Kinds of Silent Letters (1)
Edward Carney, author of A Survey of English Spelling
distinguishes two kinds of silent letters: auxiliary and
dummy.
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Silent letters
1. Auxiliary 2. Dummy
2.1. Inert letters
2.2. Empty letters
2. Different Kinds of Silent Letters (2)
1. Auxiliary letters
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They are part of a group of letters that spell a sound
that does not have a usual single letter to represent
it.
For example:
/th/ -> thing /th/ -> there /sh/ -> share
/zh/ -> treasure /ng/ -> song
2. Different Kinds of Silent Letters (3)
2. Dummy letters
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they have two subgroups
2.1. Inert letters :
They are letters that in a given word segment are sometimes
heard and sometimes not heard.
For example: resign (g is not heard) resignation (gis heard)
malign (gis not heard) malignant (gis heard)
2.2. Empty letters:
They are letters that do not have a function like auxiliary letters or
inert letters. Example: Knife, Knee
3. Rules for Silent letters (1)
There are some rules that explain which letters are supposed to be
silent, before and after certain letters (the only issue about this is
that, like all English rules –there are usually some exceptions!).
once you start practicing these rules and using with new vocabulary
that you learn, it will become easier to remember silent letters in
English.
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3. Rules for Silent letters (2)
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Silent B
Rule 1
: The letter B is usually not
pronounced after M at the end of a
word.
• Comb, bomb, thumb, climb,
tomb, crumb, lamb
Rule 2
:
B is usually not pronounced
before the letter T.
• Doubt, doubtful, subtle, debt.
Silent C
Rule 1
: The letter C is usually not
pronounced in the combination of
SC.
• Scissors, ascent, fascinate,
muscle.
Rule 2
:
C is usually mute before the
letters K and Q.
• Lock, block, puck, acknowledge.
• Aqua, Acquit, Acquiesce.
3. Rules for Silent letters (3)
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Silent D
Rule 1
: The letter D is silent when
it appears before the letters N and
G.
• Wednesday, cadge, Pledge,
grudge.
Rule 2
:
D is not pronounced in the
following Common words:
• Wednesday, handsome,
handkerchief, sandwich.
Silent E
Rule 1
:
If the letter E comes at the
ends of words, it is generally not
pronounced.
• Fore, table, before, write, give,
hide.
Rule 2
:
If E occurs before the letter
D in the second and third form of
the verbs, E may sometimes not to
be pronounced.
• Bored, fixed, smuggled, begged.
3. Rules for Silent letters (4)
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Silent G
Rule 1
: The G letter is not
pronounced when it comes before
N in a word.
• Design, foreign, sign, gnash, align.
Exceptions:
Magnet, igneous,
cognitive, signature
Silent GH
Rule 1
: GH is not pronounced when it comes
after a vowel in a word.
• High, light, thought, through alight.
Rules 2
:Exceptions: GH is pronounced
separately in compound words (As you can
see in the following words that exceptions are
generally compound words).
• Doghouse, bighead, foghorn.
Rule 3
: Except examples from rule 1, GH is
sometimes pronounced like F, consider the
words below.
• Draught, cough, laugh, tough.
3. Rules for Silent letters (5)
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Silent H
Rule 1
: The letter H is usually silent when it appears
after W.
• Why, what, when, weather, where.
Rule 2
: Sometimes the letter H is not silent after W,
consider the words below.
• Whose, whosoever, who, whoever, whole.
Rule 3
: H is mute at the beginning of many words
(remember to use the article “an” with unvoiced H).
• Hour, honest,
honour, heir.
Rule 4
:Exceptions:
Most of the words beginning with H
are not silent (remember to use the article “a” with
voiced H)
• History, Historical, Hair, Happy.
Silent K
Rule
: The letter K is always silent
when it precedes the letter N in a
word.
• Know, knock, knife, knight,
knowledge.
3. Rules for Silent letters (6)
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Silent L
Rule
:
The letter L is usually not pronounced
after the vowels: A, O and U.
• Calf, half, palm, would, should, could, folk,
yolk.
Silent N
Rule
: The letter N is not pronounced
when it comes after M at the end of a
word.
• Column, damn, solemn, autumn.
Silent P
Rule
: The letter P is not pronounced at the
he beginning of many words using the
combinations PS, PT and PN.
• Psalm, psephology, pterodactyl,
pneumonia, pneumatic.
Silent PH
Rule
:
PH is sometimes pronounced like
F.
• Sophia, paragraph, elephant,
telephone.
3. Rules for Silent letters (7)
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: The letter S is not pronounced
Silent T
Rule
: The letter T is not pronounced in the
following common English words:
• Castle, Christmas, fasten, listen, often, beret,
Chevrolet, whistle, thistle, bustle, hasten,
soften, rapport, gourmet, ballet.
: The letter U is not pronounced
Silent W
Rule 1
: The letter W is not pronounced at the
beginning of a word when it is before the letter
R.
• Write, wrest, wrong, wrack, wrap.
Rule 2
: W is silent in the following words:
• Who, whose, whole, whom, whole, whoever,
answer, sword, two.
Thank you
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