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Your pronunciation is the representation of how good you know the language. In English, pronunciation is the basis for advanced language knowledge though even native speakers may have some problems with the correct articulation.

The English language has a rather complicated phonological system that creates multiple problems for those who study it. One letter does not always represent one sound. Sometimes, one letter is involved into a morpheme that creates a sound. And sometimes, one letter is silent. It means that the letter is written, but it is not pronounced: we write hate, but we tell /heɪt/.

The difficulties of pronunciation in the English language can become a real obstacle to a further studying of the language. This is important both for public speaking and for conversational English in general. Even if your speech has been written in advance, you will not be able to perform well because have problems with pronunciation. However, if you know several basic rules, you will definitely understand the principles of reading the most important words. To make the understanding of silent letter sufficient, learn the exceptions, and no one will notice that you’re just the beginner in learning English!

Why there are silent letters?

This is the first question that we ask ourselves when we just start to learn English. Why do we need to introduce silent letters to the words if we do not pronounce them? Why should spelling be so complicated? In fact, the answer is quite simple. English has 29% French words. It means that almost each third word has a French origin. Looking at the French sentence and listening how someone pronounces it, you can notice that almost each word has many letters and a few sounds. Most of the letters create diphthongs, and there are many silent letters as well. There are also many words of Greek origin, and their pronunciation is also affected by Greek phonetic rules. For example, there are many words of Greek origin that start with ‘p’ letter followed by another consonant. In this case, ‘p’ letter is always empty. Increasing your vocabulary, you find more and more words of foreign origin.

Why do we need silent letters?

Silent letters are tricky but they perform several useful functions.

• Assistance in a distinction of homophones.

English is full of homophones. For a learner, this is hard to catch the meaning of the word from the first sight. When reading, it is possible to understand the difference between know and no or whole and hole.

• Assistance in a distinction of meanings.

As it has been previously mentioned, silent letters frequently change the pronunciation of a word. An open syllable with e at the end sounds differently from a closed syllable. For example, in the rat, we have closed syllable, but in rate, we have open syllable.

• Lengths of vowels

Again, e vowel affects the pronunciation of a word. Here, we talk about the length of the vowels. For comparison, check the words cop and cope.

The theory may look quite complicated, but we need to understand the idea of why silent letter exists in the English language. And now, let’s move to the most interesting part – the pronunciation of the words with silent letters.

Rules for silent letters

There are several basic rules that will help you understand when the letter is silent and pronounce it correctly.

• Letter B is never pronounced when preceded by M being the last letter in the word.

How would pronounce the limb word? Laimb or maybe even leemb? In fact, in this case, you should not pronounce the last letter B (according to the rule stated above). This word sounds like /lɪm/ and there is no B at the end of the word.

Crumb and dumb are also the words that fall under this rule. Just try to pronounce them. And do not forget: B is not pronounced. Also check: thumb, tomb, bomb.

• Letter B is rarely pronounced when followed by T being the last letter in the root.

Remember: the words debt, subtle and doubt do not have T in pronunciation! If you pronounce it, it is no longer the English language and people may not even understand you. At least, they will notice that you just started to study English and you make gross mistakes.

• Letter C is never pronounced being a part of SC combination.

If you want to say the word muscle, you do not pronounce the C letter. This word will never sound like /mʌskl/. The only proper way of pronunciation is to omit the C letter.  This rule has several exceptions. Learn them carefully if you want your English to be perfect: skeptic, sclerosis, Sclera, asclepiad, muscovado.

• Letter C is rarely pronounced when followed by K or Q.

It is difficult to pronounce c+k or c+q physically. You do not need to suffer from the impossibility to do that, just omit the C letter, and the pronunciation will be correct and easy. Just try to do that with the words acknowledge and acquaintance!

• Letter D is rarely pronounced when in a DG combination.

• Letter E is never pronounced being the last letter is the word, but prolongs the vowel of the previous sound.

You should not pronounce e at the end of the words such as write or note, but you should remember the exceptions. For this rule, the exceptions are the words with the unusual stress falling at the end of the word: brunette, gazelle, cassette, giraffe.

• Letter G is rarely pronounced when followed by N.

You do not pronounce the letter G in words sign and foreign, but you should pronounce it in the words magnet, cognitive, signature and igneous.

• GH combination is never pronounced when preceded by a vowel.

The exception to this rule is the only one: both of the letters are pronounced if the word is compound.

• GH is pronounced like /f/.

• Letter H is never pronounced when followed by W.

• Letter H is frequently not pronounced being the first letter in a word.

However, there is a list of words where the H is pronounced being the first letter. For example: happy, hereditary, hill, history, height.

• Letter H is rarely pronounced when followed by C, G or R.

• Letter K is never pronounced when followed by N at the beginning of the word.

• Letter L is never pronounced when preceded by A, O, and U.

Remember the words where L is always pronounced: halo, hold, fold, bulk, sulk.

• Letter N is never pronounced when followed by M in the middle of the word.

• Letter P is never pronounced when is a part of PS, PT and PN combinations at the beginning of the word.

• Letter S is never pronounced in the words island, isle, aisle, and islet.

• Letter T is never pronounced in the words castle, Christmas, fasten, listen, often, whistle, thistle, bustle, hasten, soften, rapport, gourmet, ballet.

• Letter U is never pronounced when preceded by G and when followed by a vowel.

• Letter W is never pronounced when followed by R at the beginning of the word.

For an advanced comprehension of English pronunciation, check the vocabulary where the traditional pronunciation of each word is indicated.

Silent letters are rather tricky. That is why the spelling competitions are so popular in the English language. If you do not know (hey, did you notice that know is the word with the silent letter?) how to pronounce and spell the word, you just need to spend more time mastering this field of the English language. Practice leads to the perfection, so do not waste your time and learn the language!