Rules of
silent
letters Mrs Ana Yolani Mejía
11 AEB
What is a silent letter?
A silent letter is the letter in words that are not pronounced but make a
huge difference to the meaning and pronunciation of the whole word.
There are some rules that explain which letters are supposed to be
silent, before and after certain letters (the only issue about this is that,
like all English rules – there are usually some exceptions!)
Silent B
Rule 1: The letter B is usually not pronounced after M at the end of a word.
• Comb, bomb, thumb, climb, tomb, crumb, lamb
Rule 2: B is usually not pronounced before the letter T.
• Doubt, doubtful, subtle, debt.
Silent C
Rule 1: The letter C is usually not pronounced in the combination of SC.
• Scissors, ascent, fascinate, muscle.
Rule 2: C is usually mute before the letters K and Q.
• Lock, block, puck, acknowledge.
• Aqua, Acquit, Acquiesce.
Silent D
Rule 1: The letter D is silent when it appears before the letters N and G.
• Wednesday, cadge, Pledge, grudge.
Rule 2: D is not pronounced in the following Common words:
• Wednesday, handsome, handkerchief, sandwich.
Silent E
Rule 1: If the letter E comes at the ends of words, it is generally not pronounced.
• Fore, table, before, write, give, hide.
Rule 2: If E occurs before the letter D in the second and third form of the
verbs, E may sometimes not to be pronounced.
• Bored, fixed, smuggled, begged.
Silent G
Rule 1: The G letter is not pronounced when it comes before N in a word.
• Design, foreign, sign, gnash, align.
Exceptions: Magnet, igneous, cognitive, signature
Silent GH
Rule 1: GH is not pronounced when it comes after a vowel in a word.
• High, light, thought, through alight.
Rules 2: Exceptions: GH is pronounced separately in compound words (
As you can see in the following words that exceptions are generally
compound words). • Doghouse, bighead, foghorn.
Silent GH
Rule 3: Except examples from rule 1, GH is sometimes pronounced
like F, consider the words below.
• Draught, cough, laugh, tough.
Silent H
Rule 1: The letter H is usually silent when it appears after W.
• Why, what, when, weather, where.
Rule 2: Sometimes the letter H is not silent after W, consider the words
below.
• Whose, whosoever, who, whoever, whole.
Silent H
Rule 3: H is mute at the beginning of many words (remember to use the
article “an” with unvoiced H).
• Hour, honest, honour, heir.
Rule 4: Exceptions: Most of the words beginning with H are not silent
(remember to use the article “a” with voiced H)
• History, Historical, Hair, Happy.
Silent K
Rule: The letter K is always silent when it precedes the letter N in a word.
• Know, knock, knife, knight, knowledge.
Silent L
Rule: The letter L is usually not pronounced after the vowels: A, O and U.
• Calf, half, palm, would, should, could, folk, yolk.
Silent N
Rule: The letter N is not pronounced when it comes after M at the end of a
word.
• Column, damn, solemn, autumn.
Silent P
Rule: The letter P is not pronounced at the he beginning of many words
using the combinations PS, PT and PN.
• Psalm, psephology, pterodactyl, pneumonia, pneumatic.
Silent PH
Rule: PH is sometimes pronounced like F.
• Sophia, paragraph, elephant, telephone.
Silent S
Rule: The letter S is not pronounced before L in the following words:
• Aisle, island, isle, islet.
Silent T
The letter T is not pronounced in the following common English words:
• Castle, Christmas, fasten, listen, often, beret, Chevrolet, whistle, thistle,
bustle, hasten, soften, rapport, gourmet, ballet.
Silent U
Rule: The letter U is not pronounced when it comes after G and before a
vowel in a word.
• Guide, guest, guard, guess,
Silent W
Rule 1: The letter W is not pronounced at the beginning of a word when it is
before the letter R.
• Write, wrest, wrong, wrack, wrap.
Silent W
Rule 2: W is silent in the following words:
• Who, whose, whole, whom, whole, whoever, answer, sword, two.
