Shh! When Are Letters Silent?
English pronunciation can be maddening--and silent letters are found everywhere. There are really no rules, but maybe some observations--and some lists--can help with common "silences." We talked about the silent ("magic") E in an earlier post, so here are a few other silent letters:
B Most silent B's come at the ends of words and just after m:
bomb, climb, comb, crumb, dumb, lamb, limb, numb, plumb, thumb, tomb.
However, don't forget the silent b in debt and subtle.
C is silent sometimes (but not always) when followed by S:
science, scissors, scintillating, abscess, acquiesce, ascend, ascorbic, fluorescent, discern
G followed by N, many times, is silent:
sign, gnat, gnarl, gnash, gnaw, gnostic
It's also often silent when it's followed by an H (which is usually silent then, too.)
with, though, thought, taught, through
H can be silent at the beginning of some words:
heir, honest, honor, hour
K seems to love to be silent, especially at the beginnings of words and when followed by N:
knife, knee. knead, knight, knit, knock, knot, know, knowledge, knob
L is silent when followed by D, F, K and M:
could, should, would
calf, half
chalk, talk, walk
calm, palm, psalm
N tends to be silent at the ends of words and after M:
autumn, column, condemn, damn. hymn. solemn, limn
O is silent in words like:
enough, rough, and tough (where the "gh" sounds like "f")
jeopardy, leopard, people
P is silent before N in technical terms like pneumonia, pneumatic
And before S in words like: psalm, psyche, psychology
And in corps, coup and receipt.
S is silent in only a few letters, like isle, island, apropos, bourgeois and debris.
T is silent in ballet, castle, whistle, moisten, listen, gourmet, often, rapport, and ricochet.
U is silent in words like build, catalogue, dialogue, colleague, guard, guess, guests, laugh, league and tongue
And in a few of these words, sometimes they aren't included at all (e.g. catalog, dialog.)
W is usually silent when it is followed by R:
wrack, wreath, wrangle, wrap, wreath, wren, wrench, wrestle, wrinkle, wrist, writ, write, wrong, wrought
It's also silent in: answer, sword, two and who.
Resource: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/mums-the-letter-when-letters-dont-say-a-thing/z
