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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