A pronunciation guide for silent letters - don’t pronounce them!

There are so many words in English that contain letters that although necessary for their spelling, are not pronounced when spoken. According to Ursula Dubosarky—author of “The Word Snoop”*—*about 60% of English words contain silent letters. There are silent consonants as well as silent vowels and they can be found at the beginning, middle, or end of a word.

So why do these silent letters exist?

There are a few main reasons why certain letters may be silent in British English words:

• Etymology - The word has its roots in other languages where those letters were not pronounced.
• Spelling conventions - Over time, pronunciation can change but spelling remains the same for tradition or to maintain connections between related words.
• Established pronunciation - A silent letter may have started out pronounced but was dropped over generations of speech patterns and became standard.

Unhelpfully, there are no particular clues to indicate when these letters are seen but not heard so the best thing to do is memorise them.

Take the quiz to see if you can identify the silent letters in this selection of words....