Did you know that there are many letters that can be silent at times in English. Sometimes we pronounce them, and sometimes we don't?
I know... it only makes it more complicated. There are sometimes rules or this; other times it is irregular.
Some examples:
The verbs 'talk' and 'walk' both have a silent letter. It is the letter 'L'. They are pronounced 'tok' and 'wok'. The L is silent. On the other hand, we do pronounce the 'L' in lion, lamp, lollipop, light and more.
Another common pronuciation error that I hear from students is the word 'answer'.
Can you guess the silent letter?
It is 'w'. We say this word like 'ans-er'. We do pronounce the 'w' in win, wonderful, window and many more words.
Some more challenging words to pronounce have more than 1 silent letter.
Some examples of this are as follows:
- Caught, this is the past tense of catch. Caught is pronounced like 'cot' or 'caut'. The 'GH' are silent.
- Through, the 'GH' is also silent in this word. It is pronounced like 'thru'.
Although, we usually pronounce the letter 'h' in English, there are a few exceptions.
We pronounce the 'h' in hotel, help, here, her, helicopter, and more. We do not pronounce the 'h' in hour, honest, vehicle, and ghost.
I teach different rules for pronunciation and how to pronounce words correctly in my classes, as well as English grammar, writing, conversation, professional communication, interview preparation, preparation for tests and more. Send me a message to get started, or with any questions.
Thanks for reading.
Have a wonderful day!
Lorraine Black
Are you looking for anglický jazyk tutoring? Find the right anglický jazyk tutor for online or in-person tutoring near you.
We access the information stored on your device for this website to function properly. This includes, for example, cookies or local browser cache. We use this to store the data necessary for the functioning of the website, data used for analytical purposes, or data stored by third parties.
If this information is essential for the operation of this website, we store it automatically. For everything else, we need your consent, which you can choose to give below. Your consent is valid for 12 months. Should you refuse, we will ask you for consent again in 6 months, but you are free to change your mind at any time. For more information, please see our GDPR and Terms of Use.