What are Silent Letters? Rules and Examples for English Learners

Silent letters sometimes make English tricky to learn. Unlike Arabic, Korean, Spanish, and other phonetic languages, English is a non-phonetic language, which means that words are not always pronounced as they are written.

For example, the word “dumb” is clearly written with a “b” at the end after “m,” but it is pronounced like “duhm,” with the letter “b” being silent.

Similarly, there are many words in English that are not pronounced as written due to them having silent letters, although the inconsistency in pronunciation is not always due to silent letters. 

Sometimes, two letters combine to form a completely different sound, a phenomenon known as digraphs, like “ch,” which usually makes a “che” sound as in “cheese” (cheez), oddly makes a “k” sound in “chameleon” (kuh-mee-lee-uhn) and a “sh” sound in “chandelier” (shan·duh·leeuh).

But unlike digraphs that blend two words to create a new sound, silent letters don’t create any sound at all.

They can feel like some sort of filler letters accompanying other letters just for the sake of it — much like the silent person in a group chat who’s always there but never chats.

Luckily, English has some traceable patterns that can help us guess if a letter in a word is silent or not, though not completely consistent, these patterns are worth remembering as at least 40% of words in English follow them.

We have discussed these patterns in this article with examples, as well as some exceptions to them.

What are Silent Letters?

Silent letters are letters in English that are written but not pronounced. These letters do not contribute to a word’s pronunciation, and are dropped while speaking that word.

Silent letters can be both vowels or consonants. For example:

• Silent vowel: Silent “u” in “gauge.”

• Silent consonant: Silent “t” in “ballet.”

Moreover, some words in English are suspected to never be silent, including “f,” “q,” and “v.”

However, almost all letters in English can be silent at some point, especially given that the language borrows words from other languages without strictly changing them to fit the rules.

So, almost all letters can occur as silent throughout the language with varying frequencies, of which, the most frequent ones are “b,” “c,” “e,” “g,” “h,” “k,” “p,” “s,” “t,” and “w,” with the least frequent ones being “f,” “q,” “v,” “x,” and “z.”

Types of Silent Letters

There are two types of silent letters:

1. Auxiliary Silent Letters:

Auxiliary silent letters are silent letters that influence one of their neighboring letters’ pronunciation, meanwhile they themselves are silent. These letters, although silent, contribute at least something to the overall pronunciation of a word. For example, one of the two b’s in “clubbed” helps the other one form proper pronunciation.

Auxiliary silent letters digraphs are similar to each other in functionality but they are not the same.

2. Dummy Silent Letters:

Dummy silent letters are silent and also don’t influence neighboring letters, unlike auxiliary silent letters. These letters don’t contribute anything to the overall pronunciation of a word.

Rules for Silent Letters

According to various patterns found in English, there are several rules for silent letters. However, these “rules” are not exactly “rules,” and are more like “patterns” found within the language with exceptions as well. So, if a word is exceptional to one of these rules, it is not exactly breaking the “rule,” but is rather just out of the usual patterns.

Below are the silent letters rules in English:

1. Silent B after M

The “silent b after m” rule states that if a “b” comes after an “m” at the end of a word, it should be silent. Let’s see some examples of such words and their pronunciations in parentheses.

Examples:

• Lamb (lam)

• Bomb (bom)

• Comb (kowm)

• Womb (woom)

The above words are all pronounced without the b’s at the end. The pronunciations end at “m,” while the “b” sound is dropped.

2. Silent G before N

Some words have a “g” coming before “n,” such as in “gnome” (nowm), “gnaw” (naw), “sign” (sine), and “feign” (fayn). In these words, the consonant “g” is silent and should be dropped while the “n” is pronounced.

Examples:

• Gnat (nat)

• Design (duh·zine)

• Gnosis (no·suhs)

• Benign (buh·nine)

3. Silent C in ‘CK’ and after S before I, E, Y

C appears silent in the “CK” combinations, whereas the consonant “k” is pronounced, as in “stick” (stik) and “stock” (stok).

Examples:

• Quack (kwak)

• Rock (rok)

• Neck (nek)

• Hockey (hoo·key)

4. Silent C after S before I, E, or Y

C is also silent after an “s” when preceding by “i,” or “e,” or “y.” For example, “scissors.”

• Science (sai·uhns)

• Scene (seen)

• Conscience (kon·shns)

• Scent (sent)

5. Silent K before N

Silent “k” before “n” is a rather prominent rule. It suggests that a “k,” appearing before “n,” is dropped while the consonant “n” is pronounced, as in “knock” (nokt). Acknowledge is an exception.

Examples:

• Knowledge (no·luhj)

• Knife (nife)

• Kneel (neel)

• Knave (nayv)

6. Silent W before R

In some words, “w” and “r” occur together. In these cases, the “w” before the “r” is dropped while the consonant “r” is pronounced, as in “wrap” (rap).

Examples:

• Wrangle (rang·gl)

• Wrestle (reh·sl)

• Write (rite)

• Wrath (roth)

7. Silent L after A before F, M, V, or K

Sometimes, “l” appears after the letter “a,” preceded by either an “f,” “m,” “v,” or “k.” In these cases, the “l” is silent, as in “half” (haaf), “stalk” (stawk), “calve” (kaav), “alms” (aamz).

Examples:

• Calf (kaaf)

• Almond (aa·muhnd)

• Betterhalves (beh·tuh haavz)

• Walk (wak)

8. Silent H after W

There are many words that begin with wh. In these words, the “h” after “w” is usually silent. So, the words’ pronunciation starts with “w,” as in “what” (wuh·t) and “wheeze” (weez).

Examples:

• Where (weuh)

• Whimper (wim·puh)

• Whack (wak)

• Whirl (wuhl)

8. Silent H in Latin-Oriented Words

In some words, the “h” occurring as the first letter is dropped, as in “hour.” The reason behind this rule is simply the historical origin of such words; some words taken from Latin languages have silent h’s.

Examples:

• Honesty (o·nuh·stee)

• Heir (euh)

• Honor (o·nuh)

• Herb (erb)

9. Silent P in Greek-Oriented Words

Like words from Latin languages, some words of Greek origins preserve silent p’s, especially in combinations “s” (ps), “n” (pn), “t” (pt), and some others, at the beginning of words.

Examples:

• Pneuma (NYOO-muh)

• Psalms (saamz)

• Psychology (sai·ko·luh·jee)

• pterodactyl (teh·ruh·dak·tl)

Exceptions to The Silent Letter Rules

As mentioned, the silent letter rules in English are not set in stone. These rules have variations and exceptions in many cases; up to 60% of words don’t follow these rules. Below are some examples of exceptions to some of the rules mentioned:

Silent H after W:

Some words like “whoose” (hooz) and “whom” (hu:m) break the “silent h after w” rule as their h’s are pronounced even though they come after w’s.

Silent L after A before F, M, V, or K:

Despite the rule, L is pronounced in some words, including “almost” (awl·mowst), “valve” (valv), “alkali” (al·kuh·lai), which breaks the rule.

Silent G before N:

Some words, including signature (sig·nuh·chuh) and magnet (mag·nuht) don’t follow the usual “silent g before n” rule.

Other than these, many words break the pronunciation rules but are challenging to highlight because of the variation and irregularities. For example, the letter “b” in “debt” should be pronounced because the “silent b after m” rule states that b’s coming after m’s should be silent, otherwise pronounced.

Silent Letters and Digraphs

Digraphs refers to when two different letters, written together, make a different sound. For example, the “ph” combination makes an “f” sound, which is different than the sound that “p” and “h” make individually, such as in “phenix” (feh·nuhks), “phone” (fown), and “morph” (mawf).

Two letters making a third sound is one type of digraph, called exocentric digraphs. In another type called “endocentric,” the sound produced by the mix of two letters corresponds to the sound of one of the two letters involved. For example, the “mn” combination makes an “m” sound in “hymn” (him) and “autumn” (aw·tm).

It can be argued that the both letters (in case of exocentric digraphs, like “ph” in “phone”) or one of the letters (in case of endocentric digraphs like “n” in “hymn”) appear silent, since they are not pronounced the way they should be normally. By this sense, some may classify digraphs, like “ph” in “phone” and “n” in “hymn” as silent. However, mostly, digraphs are not considered silent letters since they combine to produce one sound or the other, thus contributing to the word’s pronunciation.

How to Figure Out When a Word Has Silent Letters

Owing to the irregularities in silent letter rules, the best way to figure out a word’s silent letters and its proper pronunciation is by looking up that word in a dictionary.

While the silent letter patterns can help you guess how most words are to be pronounced, it’s best to look up a word’s pronunciation when you come across it for the first time just to be sure and not fall prey to the exceptions.

How to find a word’s proper pronunciation?

The easiest way to find a word’s proper pronunciation is by googling that word. This is the easiest way because Google provides you with a simplified pronunciation of most words, meanwhile dictionaries, though more nuanced and accurate, tend to provide written pronunciations in diacritical marks (letters like é, ü, â), which many people are unfamiliar with.

If you can read diacritical marks or prefer audio examples, Google Translate is particularly a handy and widely accessible platform that you can use to check newly found words and their pronunciations. Additionally, online dictionaries, such as Cambridge or any other reliable dictionary, can also be used to locate a word’s pronunciation. Dictionaries are especially helpful as they can tell apart a word’s different pronunciations spoken in different regions or dialects.

Conclusion

In English, silent letters are letters without sounds. These are written in words, as a part of them, but are not pronounced. There are several rules that govern silent letters and their influence on words. But like most rules in English, the silent letter rules have exceptions and irregularities, making it tricky to figure out how a word is to be pronounced.