Rules of Silent Letter

1. SILENT LETTER
Rules of Pronouncing
By: Tira Nur Fitria M.Pd
tiranurfitria@gmail.com

2. 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!)

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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.

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

11. 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.

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

13. 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.

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

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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. REFERENCES
https://www.learnesl.net/silent-letters-in-english/