Silent Letters in English A to Z with ALL RULES British Accents and Pronunciation

everyone and welcome back to english

with lucy so you might have noticed that

recently i’ve been doing a series on

things you should never do in english or

things you should never say and you guys

seem to be reacting really well to it

and really enjoying it so i’m back today

with another video this time about

letters that you should never ever

pronounce in british english yes so

today we’re going to be talking about

silent letters in British English words

I’m going to run through the letters

alphabetically it’s going to be really

easy for you to understand really easy

for you to remember and revise a later

date before we start the lesson I would

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for that discount right let’s get on

with the lesson so as you know English

is not a phonetic language which means

although you might see a letter in a

word it doesn’t necessarily mean you

have to pronounce it I’m here to help

you with that so let’s talk about the

letters that you should never pronounce

in English the silent letters in English

words I’m going to go through them from

a to Zed giving you as many examples as

I can possibly fit into this video I

really do advise that you make a note of

these and try to use as many as possible

throughout your daily life

that way it really gets stuck into your

head ok so when should you not pronounce

the letter a well when it comes just

before

lly at the end of a word look at the

word on-screen how many syllables should

this word have how many syllables

if you thought 3 you’re correct it

should be logically we don’t say

logically it’s just logically some other

examples are artistically romantically

musically it might be a good time now to

mention the homework for today’s lesson

which is to add any extra words you can

think of in your a to Zed list and

please share them in the comments let’s

see who can contribute the most words

I’ll be looking out for them right let’s

move on to B so the B in words is

usually silent when it comes before a T

or after an M let’s look at before a T

we have subtle subtle no be there

we also have debt debt and what about

after an M we have comb comb woom woom

toom toom bum bum plumber plumber some

thumb now there are exceptions to these

rules for example the word obtain it

comes before a t yet you pronounce the T

or remember remember so next we have C

the letter C is usually silent when it

comes after an S and before I II or Y

for example

scissors or science another

miscellaneous one is muscle muscle and

yacht yacht so there is one rule for the

letter D it’s normally silent if it

comes before an N or a G for example

Wednesday Pledge grudge other common

words include sandwich handsome now

silent e’s

form a big part of the English language

in lower school or primary school we

used to call them magic ease because by

putting in E at the end of a word the

vowel before it normally becomes a

longer vowel sound

for example mat changes to mate or strip

changes to stripe other examples include

face hate cute tube what about the

letter G the letter G is normally not

pronounced if it comes before and n

for example a line a line foreign

foreign there are exceptions to this

rule like magnet or signature G is also

not pronounced if it comes after a vowel

and before an H for example high light

through please do note though that gh is

pronounced separately in compound words

like doghouse that’s two words put

together or foghorn another fog horn two

words put together sometimes gh is

pronounced like an F for example laughs

draft tough right let’s talk about H on

its own it’s normally silent when it

appears after a w for example why what

when however sometimes it’s not silent

especially if an O follows it who who

ever wholesome H is also silent at the

beginning of many other words like our

honest honor

remember with an unvoiced H you have to

use the article and an hour an honest

man in general most words beginning with

H are voiced and you should use the

article a happy dog a hare let’s move on

to K the letter K is almost always

silent when it comes before an N at the

beginning of a word for example night

night knife knife knowledge knowledge

what about the letter L the letter L is

not usually pronounced if it comes after

a o or you for example

calf calf

should-should yoke yoke what about the

letter n the letter n is usually silent

if it comes after an M at the end of a

word for example autumn autumn column

column damn damn ah the letter P this

one has got a bit more meat to it the P

is usually silent in the letter

combinations PS PT and P n used at the

beginning of words for example

psychology psychology pterodactyl

pterodactyl I’ve always wanted to get a

dinosaur into one of my videos and I

have done it I did not know my new

year’s resolution would be so easy to

achieve pneumonia pneumonia now P and H

together is sometimes pronounced like F

elephant elephant telephone telephone

the letter S the letter S is not

pronounced before L in the following

words Island Island that’s a really

common mistake I hear I hear is ‘land

Iceland same for Isle Isle now key is a

silent letter it’s quite hard to come up

with a definitive rule but commonly

anything ending in ste n it’s likely to

have a silent T for example listen

listen

moisten moisten and also STL e whistle

whistle castle castle

other notable words are words derived

from French like ballet ballet beret

beret and

other random ones like often often

although you will hear that pronounced

as often often in fact I was brought up

to say often right we’re getting close

to the end now what about the letter U

the letter U is usually silent if it

comes after a G at the beginning of a

word for example guess guess or gade

gade and moving on to the letter W the

letter W is usually not pronounced if it

comes before are at the beginning of a

word for example wrong wrong rap rap

right right it is silent however if it’s

followed by an H and an O at the

beginning of a word like who whom

whoever whoever whole whole and then

there are other random words like - -

and sword sword

the letter X the only word I can think

of is at the end of a word derived from

French fo so it’s a commonly used word

in English and the letters ed another

French word rendezvous rendezvous we

don’t pronounce these ed there right

that’s the end of today’s lesson please

do complete the homework I would like to

see as many more examples of silent

letters in English words as possible in

the comment section I’ll be keeping my

eyes peeled for you don’t forget to

check out the lingo - language marathon

I’ve got the link to my full

announcement video and also the sign up

link and discount code in the

description box don’t forget to connect

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got my Facebook I’ve got my Instagram

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you soon for another lesson nah these

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