EASY WAY TO KNOW ENGLISH SILENT LETTERS

SILENT LETTERS

A. MEANINGS: Silent letters are those letters that are there when we write the word, but we can’t hear when we say the word. They are so many in English. Infact, almost every letter of the alphabet can be silent at least in one word.

B. Why are there silent letters in English? And why it's so important to know them?

First, knowing silent letters will help you so much in different way. Let's see some of them: 1. To distinguish between homophones. Homophones are words that are pronounced the same but have a different meaning and often a different spelling.(e.g. be and bee, in and inn, lent and leant, see and sea, new and knew, night and knight, jamand jamb, rest and wrest.

2. To reveal the origin of some words:

Silent letters in words can be a clue to a word's origin as they are plenty of loanwords in English. In this way, they sometimes give an insight into the origin of a word, reflect the word's etymology or historical roots. e.g. resign to resignation, vine to vineyard. Words with a silent "P", such as "psychology" and "pneumonia", come from Greek where "p" was pronounced.

3. Pronunciation: Silent letters can sometimes affect the pronunciation of other letters. For example, in the words "sign" and "gnome"; "Know" and "No".

. Words with silent letters in EnglishEnglish. Here's a list A to Z of different silent letters in English, along with explanations and examples for each. We made this detailed video for you. You want to know and use silent letters in English! Please watch the video here. Thank you.