English Forums

Silent Letter

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 / who / when / where / whether / why

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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

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Pronounced H

H is pronounced at the beginning of these common words. Use the article "a" with voiced H.

Hill / history / height / happy / hangover

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Silent K

K is not pronounced when followed by N at the beginning of a word.

Knife / knee / know / knock / knowledge

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Silent L

L is often not pronounced before L, D, F, M, K.

Calm / half / salmon / talk / balk / would / should

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Silent N

N is not pronounced following M at the end of a word.

Autumn / hymn

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Silent P

P is not pronounced at the beginning of many words using the suffix "psych" and "pneu".

Psychiatrist / pneumonia / psychotherapy / psychotic

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Silent S

S is not pronounced before L in the following words:

Island / isle

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Silent T

T is not pronounced in these common words:

Castle / Christmas / fasten / listen / often / whistle / thistle

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Silent U

U is not pronounced before after G and before a vowel.

Guess / guidance / guitar / guest

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Silent W

W is not pronounced at the beginning of a word followed by an R.

Wrap / write / wrong

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Silent W

W is not pronounced with these three pronouns:

Who / whose / whom

Thank you a lot!!!  Cool lesson ^^

Ta,,,,,Best wishes:)

tq for the info,

This is a useful list indeed, rusminah. Sorry to be a bit picky, but this section needs to be corrected: Silent H  H is not pronounced when following W.

Some speakers whisper the H before the W. What / who / when / where / whether / why

 “who” is pronounced as: /hu:/

yup,

you're right, "who" is though pronounce with heavy sound of H. 

OK , "'who" is also found in the last row.

W is not pronounced with these three pronouns:

Who / whose / whom

I was wondering why the H sound is said to be silent in the word "herb", but that's apparently how the Americans pronounce it.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?dict=CALD&key=36755&ph=on

Thanks for your sharing…

Irsath 

thanks

thanks!

Thanks.