Understanding the rules of silent letters in English.

As if the learning of English wasn't difficult enough by itself without the inclusion of unexplainable complications such as silent letters and tricky spelling rules.

Whether you are learning English for the first time or are a native speaker, English can be a very complicated language. Given the hundreds of spelling and grammar rules, English doesn't always look the way it sounds. A perfect example of this is the use of silent letters within words.

In this article, we are going to outline the rules associated with silent letters and the spelling structures that decided whether they are sounded or silent.

Auxiliary silent letters work with other letters to form one specific sound. They include exocentric and endocentric combinations. Exocentric combinations make a sound that doesn't sound like either of the letters in the silent letter pair. A good example of this is 'ph' when it makes the 'f' sound. These types of silent letters aren't always considered true silent letters, but it's important to be familiar with these members of the silent letter family.

On the other hand, endocentric combinations produce the sound of one of the letters in a pair. A double consonant such as 'ff' in the word 'huffed' is a good example. Only one 'f' is pronounced.

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Dummy silent letters are simply letters that are not pronounced. Dummy letters, like many silent letters, are found in words for a few reasons. First, inert letters may be pronounced when the base word changes to a longer word. For example, in the word 'sign', the 'g' is not pronounced, but in the word 'signature', the 'g' makes a sound. If the letters in words do not change to make a sound, then they are known as empty letters.

Secondly, silent letters exist in words as a result of the English language changing over time. The silent 'k' in the words 'knife' and 'knight' were at one point pronounced. Over time, prior to the seventeenth century, English speakers stopped pronouncing the 'k' in favor of the 'n' sound, yet the spelling of these words didn't change.

Rules of Silent Letters

What is a silent letter? A silent letter is the letter in words that are not pronounced but make a huge difference to the meaning and pronunciation of the whole word. 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!)4

1. 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.

2. 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.

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3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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.

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7. 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, honor, 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.

8. Silent (K) Rule: The letter K is always silent when it precedes the letter N in a word. • Know, knock, knife, knight, knowledge.

9. 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.

10. Silent (N) Rule: The letter N is not pronounced when it comes after M at the end of a word. • Column, damn, solemn, autumn.

11. 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.

12. Silent (PH) Rule: PH is sometimes pronounced like F. • Sophia, paragraph, elephant, telephone.

13. Silent (S) Rule: The letter S is not pronounced before L in the following words: • Aisle, island, isle, islet.

14. 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.

15. Silent (U) Rule: The letter U is not pronounced when it comes after G and before a vowel in a word. • Guide, guest, guard, guess, guano.

16. 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.