Lesson Summary
Ready to practice with me? I'll teach you to correctly pronounce 115 English words with silent consonant letters. These are common, everyday English words and I'm going to teach you how to pronounce them accurately and naturally!
But you know what…? Silent letters are more common than you think! They are in well over HALF of all English words! Practice these cheeky English words in context with me and learn the correct pronunciation!
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Video Transcript
Section 1
Well hey there! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish! In today's pronunciation lesson, we're going to practise English words with silent letters in them. It's true, silent letters are cheeky little buggers. They always confuse my students and they're always tripping them up.
But silent letters are in well over half of all English words so while they're annoying, you've got to get used to them if you want to improve your pronunciation and speak English clearly.
I'm sure you're already thinking of a few. Can you think of some English words that have silent letters in them? Especially ones that you keep pronouncing incorrectly.
Let me know about it down in the comments and hopefully, fingers crossed, we're gonna get some practice with them in today's lesson.
And while I could give you a big list of rules to try and study, the best way to learn the correct pronunciation is to hear and to see them being used in context and actually practising the sounds yourself. So I've got one small request of you, please. I want you to practise along with me in this lesson all the way through to the end. I want you to listen to me first. In each sentence, there is going to be multiple words with the same silent letter.
So your first challenge is to guess what the silent letter is only by listening. If you do, you score a point. Make sure you keep count so that you know how you did at the end of the lesson. I'll also share some tips with you so you know how to pronounce these words right every time. Okay so you need to listen and try to guess which silent letter occurs multiple times in this sentence, listening first.
1. Silent K
Do you know?
I know you knocked your knee while kneading the dough.
We've got know, knocked, knee and knead or kneading.
I know this is a really simple one to get started with but there are several common English words that have a silent letter K and notice that it always happens before an N. Try these ones out with me.
- knife
- knot
- knowledge
- knack
- knuckle
- knob
- knit
I know you knocked your knee while kneading the dough.
Your turn.
2. Silent D
Listen.
What letter is the silent letter there? Did you guess D?
I had the most delicious sandwich last Wednesday when I was on a date with a handsome boy.
Try them out with me.
- sandwich
- Wednesday
- handsome
Handkerchief is another but there's no D sound there. We don't hear.
We don't say Wednesday or handkerchief. It's just Wednesday, handkerchief. No D at all.
3. Silent B
Listen.
Can you guess it?
You got it, there were a few silent B's in there.
There were lamb crumbs under the plumber's numb thumb.
Your turn.
Notice that all of these silent B's have an M before it.
- lamb
- crumb
- numb
- plumber
- thumb
So this is a good clue. There are lots of English words that follow this same pattern. It's not clim-bing but climbing. Not dum-b, dumb.
- bomb
- comb
- limb
- tomb
Happens quite a bit.
But just when you start feeling comfortable with this pattern and you think: you know what I've got this rule, I've got it…
I'm going to jump in and let you know that there are some exceptions. Listen carefully to hear the B sound as I say these words.
- amber
- clamber
- slumber
Now I want you to try this one.
- plumber
- climber
Nice one.
4. Silent B
Listen. Any idea what that silent letter could be? Still a B.
This is a subtle reminder about the debt I doubted you would repay.
B can be silent when it's before a T as well.
- subtle
- debt
- doubted
5. Silent T
Listen.
That's a clue, actually.
So which letter is it?
Soften your voice and listen to the whistle of that bird.
- soften
- listen
- whistle
It's the T that's silent in all of them and you can practise some more words with me now.
- castle
- Christmas
- fasten
- glisten
- wrestle
- apostle
So you can see that a T is sometimes silent after an S. But that rule isn't perfect is it? Because soften and often don't follow it.
Though often is a bit of an exception because it can be pronounced often with a silent T or it can be pronounced as often.
You'll hear native speakers saying both. Now it's a little tricky with adjectives like soft and moist because you can hear that T sound at the end of the word when it's an adjective but when they become verbs and that T moves to the middle of the word, the sound disappears.
We say soften, not sof-ten. We say moisten not mois-ten.
6. Silent W
Listen.
We're going in no particular order here. Can you hear it? Probably not because it's silent.
I wrote the wrong answer at question two.
Your turn.
So the letter W is always silent when it's at the start of the word and in front of the letter R like in:
- write
- wrote
- wrist
- wrong
Sometimes you don't hear it when it's in front of a H at the start of the word either like:
- who
- whoever
- whole
But that rule is broken completely by words like wheat and whip where it's actually the H that's silent.
But a silent W pops up a little more frequently than you realise in words like:
- two
- sword
- answer
You don't hear it at all.
7. Silent P
Here we go again.
It's those silent P's, isn't it?
The psychologist will start a coup if they don't provide a receipt for the telephone bill.
We've got:
- psychologists
- coup
- receipt
We don't hear that P at all, absolutely not at the start, in the middle or at the end of a word.
8. Silent C
So listen.
Can you guess which one it is? Which is the silent letter in there?
Different scientific scenarios fascinate me.
It's that letter C. It's usually silent when it appears after an S.
- scientific
- scenarios
- fascinate
Great work!
Can you think of any other examples that have this same combination S with a silent C?
- muscles
- scissors
- scene
I mean really that C just doesn't need to be there because S is doing all of the work making the sound anyway right. It's quite superfluous. In fact, that is an excellent way to describe the C in all of these words, it's superfluous. It's there but it doesn't need to be. It's just an extra thing, right? It's unnecessary.
The same thing can be said for the C in a choir. Pointless. Superfluous. Doesn't need to be there but it is.
9. Silent L
Okay listen, I'm going to do this one twice because it's long.
Can you guess? Which letter is silent five times in that sentence?
Could we talk as we walk through the palm trees for half an hour?
I'm going to show you just how often an L can be silent in English words.
We've got:
- could
- should
- would
We don't hear that L at all.
- calf
- half
- chalk
- talk
- walk
- calm
- palm
- salmon
- yolk
All of those words have silent L's in them and they're reasonably common.
10. Silent G
Listen.
It's a little tricky, that one. There are quite a few different things going on there. But I wonder if you can guess which letter is the silent one in there. It happens several times.
There are signs that this might be a design by the foreign minister's daughter.
It's that G.
- sign
- might
- design
- foreign
- daughter
So what patterns can we see here? We can see that the G is often silent when it's before an N and you've probably noticed that the combination of G and H in a word can be silent too and this happens a lot.
In fact, -GH is not usually pronounced after a vowel like in:
- through
- though
- high
- light
- bright
- right
All of these examples, though sometimes it's not silent at all like in cough and enough where that -GH is pronounced as a
11. Silent H
Did you guess it?
Honestly, even if you whisper we can hear an echo.
Honestly not honestly, honestly.
- whisper
- echo
The letter H can be silent too and in a few different ways. Sometimes it's not pronounced at the start of words like:
- honest
- honour
- hour
And it can also be silent if it comes after a C, G or R like in:
- choir
- echo
- ghost
- rhythm
12. Silent R
Okay listen up. Can you guess? It's a bit of a tricky one.
I'd rather we wait until February to clear the air.
So February is most definitely the purest silent R in this sentence. February not February. February.
But in my Australian accent and in most British English accents, the silent R is much more common than in American accents because we don't pronounce the R at the end of words like:
- rather
- clear
- air
Try with me.
- water
- mother
- fear
- laughter
You don't hear that -ER sound at the end of any of those words it's silent.
13. Silent N
Here we go again. Got it?
That damn column was damaged by the autumn winds.
So just like silent B's, N is silent at the end of a word when it follows M.
- damn
- autumn
- column
- hymn
- condemn
- solemn
You don't hear it there at all, it's not autumn just autumn.
So you might ask what the heck is it doing there anyway?
Look to be honest, I don't know but it is. You can't forget about it when you're writing but you can definitely forget about it as you're speaking.
14. Silent S
Okay this is the last one for today. What letter is the common silent letter there? It's that S.
It's silent in words like:
- island
- debris
- aisle
- even
The storm left debris and damage across the whole island.
Your turn.
I hope that you enjoyed that lesson. Make sure you let me know, like the video or drop me a comment down below to tell me. Were you able to guess most of those silent letters just by listening or did it become a little bit easier when you saw the word appear up on screen?
We went through a hundred and fifteen words with silent letters in them which is pretty epic so well done for sticking with me.
Of course, this video focused on silent consonants but I've got another one coming out soon that will focus on silent vowels in English words so if you've got questions about silent letters in English pronunciation then make sure you drop them down in the comments below, make sure you subscribe to the mmmEnglish channel and then come and check out a new lesson with me right here.
mmmEnglish Video Lessons are a series of video lessons created to build confidence in English learners and focus on English in daily life. Download them and watch them anywhere! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to be the first to get my new videos, and come and say hi on my Facebook page!!
Great!
Hey i am from pakistan you are doing such a great job i watched your videos and these are really very helpfull for those who wants to speak english .
Thank you Kashif for your kind words!
Hi Emma, the reason there are silent letters in English is that in the past the printing presses used to print newspapers or books using pre-made letters in the old printing presses.
The more letters in the words, the more money the printing houses made, so over the years more and more letters were added to the words.
I do not know if it's a legend or a real one but it's what I once read
Fantastic collection of useful and interesting information. Thank you !
It’s been my problem for a long time and still is. Thank you for this very interesting video.
Video and video transcript very useful.Thanks a lot!
You're so welcome, Parvin!
Thanks for this lesson Emma. Very interesting and I'm really grateful for this. May God bless you!!!
great Emma for another time, i am really thankful for this lesson.
I'm happy to receive email with link on this lesson. You're the best! Thanks a lot!
I am happy for receiving your email with link. You are the best to teach us effectively.
Great lesson! So useful, especially for my pronunciation. Blessings Emma!
Very interesting and useful. Thank you.
Once again thank you Emma. I would like to ask this: since words where we have silent letters are many, how can we proceed to know them all?
Great! Thanks a lot.
Thank you do much. Perfect!
My gratitude!
Thank you Emma! I've never noticed that I always pronounce handsome with D in the middle~! No one ever correct me or tell me, even though my husband is a native English speaker and I work in a totally native English environment. It just show how important English teacher is!
Great, very useful and interesting, thank you, looking forward more useful lessons.
Thank you! You can watch my latest lesson here 🙂
https://www.mmmenglish.com/2021/04/01/speaking-practice-lesson-tell-a-great-story-in-english/
Amazing one
Great lesson.
Thank you very much madam Emma for your good teaching, I have learned a lot of new things from your English presentation on Youtube, You are an excellent presenter, I nearly wrote very good but I have remembered your lesson on enhancing the vocabulary by avoiding using the words very by substituting with words like amazing, fantastic, splendid and so on. Thank you very much my superb instructor. My request is that please may you arrange student who would like test paper in your free course so that we can get some certificate.
Does friend has the silent letter i?
Hi Emma, why I have hard time to figure out the silent words.
Very useful but difficult lesson ! I listened and watch it it twice, very carefully, and i learnd a lot of words. Thanks, Emma !
Thank you dear Emma. The lesson is wonderful and superb. I learnt a lot from it. Each lesson is unique. keep it up. I wish to be like you, my mentor, one day.
Thanks a lot for teaching…
Thank you so much. I'd like you to make a lesson about complex object and complex subject.
Thanks so much my teacher. it is my interesting lesson thanks again.
Great great Emma you are wonderful
thank you, Emma, I really enjoyed this new pronunciation lesson
Thank you Emma, extremely useful as usual.
Thanks Emma for this lesson. Very interesting and may God bless you!!!
Those silent consonants can be a real tricky at times especially for non-native speakers, but being there with me/us, I learned how to dedicate myself with a calm mind to the task at hand. Thank you, Ms. Emma. On behalf of my family, we wish you and your family the best of this holiday season. God bless! Thanks for the grammar checker.
The reason there are silent letters in English is that in the past the printing presses used to print newspapers or books using pre-made letters in the old printing presses.
The more letters in the words, the more money the printing houses made, so over the years more and more letters were added to the words.
I do not know if it's a legend or a real one but it's what I once read.
Thank you very much my teacher.