What are silent letters, and how do you know when to use them?

Say knee, lamb and write out loud. You hear "nee", "lam" and "rite". The k, the b and the w are there on the page, but your voice skips them. These are silent letters, and English has a lot of them.

Why keep a letter nobody says? Long ago, many of them were pronounced. In Old and Middle English people really did say the k in knight and knee and the w in write. Over the centuries the way people spoke changed, but the spelling stayed the same, especially once printing (from the late 1400s) helped to fix how words were written. Other silent letters were added on purpose: in the 1500s, scholars put a b into debt and doubt to show their Latin roots (debitum, dubitare), even though English speakers had never said it. Borrowed words often keep their original spelling too: ballet comes from French and psychology from Greek.

The good news is that silent letters are not random. Most of them come in letter patterns that you can learn as families:

• kn at the start of a word: the k is silent (knee, knock, know, knife, knight).
• wr at the start of a word: the w is silent (write, wrong, wrist, wrap).
• mb at the end of a word: the b is silent (lamb, comb, thumb, climb, and also plumber).
• gn: the g is silent (gnome, gnat, sign, design, foreign).
• mn at the end: the n is silent (autumn, column, solemn, hymn).
• st and sten: the t is often silent (castle, whistle, listen, fasten).
• alk, alf, ould: the l is silent (walk, talk, half, calf, could, should).
• gu: the u is silent (guess, guitar, guard, guide).
• sc: the c is silent (scissors, science, muscle, scene).
• igh: the gh is silent (night, light, high), and in daughter and though too.
• a silent h (hour, honest, ghost, rhyme) and a silent w (sword, answer, two, who).

Here is a helpful trick: a silent letter often "wakes up" in a related word. You cannot hear the g in sign, but you can in signature and signal. The n is silent in autumn and column but spoken in autumnal and columnist. The c is silent in muscle but you hear it in muscular. If you know the relative, you can spell the word.

Two more things to know. First, many teachers also call the e at the end of cake or bike a "silent e" (or "magic e"): you don't say it, but it changes the vowel sound before it. Second, some letters are silent in one accent and spoken in another. Most Americans say herb without the h, while most British speakers say the h; and some people pronounce the l in almond or the t in often. Letters that work together to make one sound are also covered on the digraphs page.

What are silent letters in English?#

They are letters that appear in the spelling of a word but are not pronounced, like the k in know, the b in comb and the t in listen. Most of them belong to patterns such as kn, wr, mb and gn.

How many silent letters are there in English?#

There is no official number. Many different letters can be silent in at least one word (b in lamb, c in scissors, d in Wednesday, g in sign, h in hour, k in knee, l in walk, n in autumn, p in psychology, s in island, t in castle, u in guitar, w in write), so teachers focus on the most common patterns.

What is the silent letter in plumber, thumb, climb and comb?#

The b. In all four words b comes straight after m, and in that position it is not pronounced.

What is the silent letter in almond and in sword?#

In almond the l is silent for most speakers, although some people (especially in parts of the US) say it. In sword the w is silent: it sounds like "sord".

How did silent letters come about?#

Some were once pronounced and stayed in the spelling after people stopped saying them, like the k in knight. Some were added by scholars to show a word's Latin roots, like the b in debt. The s in island was added because people wrongly linked the word to isle. Others come with borrowed words, like ballet from French.

How do you identify a silent letter in a word?#

Say the word slowly and match each sound to the letters. If a letter makes no sound of its own, it is silent. A dictionary that shows pronunciation will confirm it.

Are there silent letters in French and Spanish?#

Yes. French has a great many, especially at the ends of words (the t in petit, the d in grand, the -ent in ils parlent). Spanish has far fewer: mainly the h, as in hola and hielo, and the u in que, qui, gue, gui.

How do you teach kids silent letters?#

Teach one pattern at a time and sort words into families (all the kn words, all the wr words). Make silly sentences such as The knight knelt to tie a knot, and use the spelling voice ("k-nite") to help the letters stick.