Silent “k”

The Letter “k”

It is silent at the start of words if there is a following “n”: knack, knead, knee, bread knife, knight, knock, know, knuckle, etc.

Get some practice

In the following game, you will need to hit the moles which carry the words where there’s a silent “k”.

1. What about tongue twister? Listen and repeat.

I have knickers in my knapsack, and some nicknacks in my knapsack, and a knife for a knight with a knack for cutting knots.

Silent “p”

The Letter “p”.

It is silent in words of Greek origin, which start with ps- pt- or pn-. This is the Greek Impact on English vocabulary. Examples are combinations with psych, psychology, psychic and pseudo, pseudonym, pseudopod, as well as psalm, pterodactyl, and pneumatic.

Get some practice

In the following game, you will need to sort out the words according to a silent or voiced “p”.

2. Repeat after the speaker. Copy the rhythm and pronunciation.

Receipt for pterodactyls in a cupboard, corps in a coup, pneumonia and psoriasis – need to go psychiatrist.

Silent “b”

The Letter “b”.

It is usually not pronounced after “m” at the end of a word like in bomb, climb, comb, crumb, dumb, lamb, limb, tomb, and womb. The “b” remains silent even after the addition of the endings -ing, -ed -or -er: bombing, combing, dumbing, lambed, dumber, but not in the words like crumble, humble, tumble,or limber and timber.

Another combination where “b” is silent is “b” plus “t”, like in debt, doubt, and subtle.

Get some practice

Let’s play cards. There’re four groups of words behind the cards. Tap each one randomly or one by one and find all the words with silent “b” in each group.

3. Listen to the tongue twister and repeat.

Remember the dumb plumber with a numb thumb who dug the tomb with a comb?

Silent “l”

The Letter “l”.

It is silent inside the three modal verbs: could, would, should as well as between the letter “a” or “o” and “k” in words like stalk, talk, walk, folk, and yolk, and between “a” and “m”, for example: alms, calm, palm, psalm, and salmon.

Get some practice

In the following exercise, spin the wheel, listen to the pronunciation of the words and repeat. There are words with silent and voiced “l”. After you repeat, click on the “eliminate” button at the bottom of the wheel to avoid repetitions.

4. Repeat after the speaker.

I could talk to folks walking calmly with chalk.

Silent “s”

The Letter “s”.

A few words of French origin have a silent “s” at the end: corps, debris, fracas, rendezvous. Words with it in the middle include isle, aisle, island and viscount. The /ai/ is pronounced in all of these words.

Get some practice

Let’s ride Christmas reindeer! You’re responsible for directing them into the right cloud – with a silent “s” or with a voiced “s”. Get concentrated! The reindeer go fast.

5. Repeat after the speaker. Copy the pronunciation.

There’s an aisle on an isle where a viscount has a rendezvous with a viscountess among debris from a club after the fracas.

Silent “t”

The Letter “t”

This letter is usually silent when sandwiched between “s” and “le”, as in bustle, castle, epistle, pestle, rustleandthistle, and often silent between “f” or “s” and “en” in words like often, soften, listen, glisten, fasten and hasten.

Because of the French influence, some words must be pronounced in the French way. These words end in the vowel /eɪ/ without “t”. For example ballet, beret, bidet, bouquet, buffet, cachet, chalet, croquet, duvet, ricochet, sobriquet, tourniquet and valet, depot and rapport.

Get some practice

Match the words with the pictures.

6. Repeat the tongue twister after the speaker.

A gourmet likes sorbet while listening to whistling and watching ballet in a castle.

Silent “h”

The Letter “h”

At the start of a word, this letter is silent in honour and its derivatives (honourable, honorific, honorarium etc.) and also honest, hour and heir.

In most varieties of English, “h” after a starting “w” is silent, as in wheat, when, where, whether, whey, while, whistle and why.

Inside words, a common silent occurrence is in –ham at the end of British (not American) place names like Birmingham, Cheltenham, Tottenham and Nottingham (the pronounciation is /-әm/ in all of these). The word vehicle has no /h/ sound, being pronounced /’vi: jә kl/, and there is none in shepherd and silhouette. The “h” in Thames can also be called silent because it does not change the /t/ to /θ/, the sound like in theatre. Similar is “h” after “r” in words of Greek origin like rhyme, rhino and diarrhoea.

Finally, “h” is silent after “c” in words of Greek origin, such as choir; it does not change the sound of “c” in any way. Other examples are anarchy, anchor, character, cholesterol, chorus, Christmas, chrome, epoch, orchestra, psychology and scheme.

Get some practice

Sort out the words according to a silent or voiced “h”.

7. Repeat after the speaker.

Honesty of an honourable heir is getting fame from hour to hour.

Your turn!

Pronounce all the 7 tongue twisters (they are in green) from this lesson clearly and loudly. Record yourself.