Silent letters are letters that you don’t hear when you utter a word but can see when you write it.
Silent letters can tell the difference between homophones, such as in/inn, be/bee, and lent/leant. This is a helpful hint for readers who are already familiar with both terms.
Silent letters can reveal information about a word’s meaning or origin, for example, vineyard suggests vines more than the phonetic ‘vinyard.’
Long vowels, such as rid/ride, are easier to see with silent letters.
Silent letters, such as guest/gest, help to show ‘hard’ consonants.
They can assist in the connection of multiple forms of the same word, such as resign/resignation.
Silent letters are more difficult to predict than empty letters in new words. “There are no standards that we can apply to words with empty letters[;] you just have to use them and remember their spelling,” Strausser and Paniza, authors of Painless English for Speakers of Other Languages, say. (Strausser and Paniza 2007, for example).
Silent Letters Come in a Variety of Forms
A Survey of English Spelling author Edward Carney divides silent letters into two categories: auxiliary and dummy. He divides the two groupings into the following categories.
Auxiliary Letters
Auxiliary letters are part of a set of letters that spell a sound that isn’t represented by a single letter. As an example,
There’s /th/ thing /th/ there /sh/ share /zh/ treasure /ng/ song.” “
Dummy Letters
“There are two types of dummy letters: inactive letters and empty letters.
Inert letters are letters that are sometimes heard and sometimes not heard in a word segment. As an example,
resignation withdrawal heinous
“Like auxiliary letters and inactive letters, empty letters have no purpose. The letter u in the word gauge, for example, is blank. Silent consonants can be found in the following words:
d: bridge, ledge, edge c: indict ch: yacht
g: sign, design, assign, foreign
h: spaghetti, rhinoceros
knuckle, knee, knit, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob, knob
m: mnemonic n: autumn, column l: calf, talk, could, should, would m: mnemonic
p: raspberry, receipt
t: castle, whistle
w: “answer,” “wrap,” “wring,” “wring,” “wring,” “wring,” “wring,” “wring,” “wring,” “wring,” “w (Carney 1994).
In the spelling sequences mb and bt, the letter b is always silent in the word-final position: comb, numb, bomb, limb, debt…
In the spelling sequence dj: adjective, adjunct, neighboring…, the letter d is always silent.
In the spelling sequence gm or gn, the letter g is silent: phlegm, gnarl, champagne, sign, gnat, gnaw…
In the spelling sequence gh and in the word-final position: ghost, ghetto, aghast, ghastly, ah, eh, oh… h is silent in the spelling sequence gh and in the word-final position: ghost, ghetto, aghast, ghastly, ah, eh, oh…
In the word-initial spelling sequence kn, the letter k is always silent: kneel, knee, knob, knight, knave, knowledge, knife, knock,”.
The History
So, where did the silent letters originate? They are Classical period relics, according to author Ned Halley. “As the Classical world’s influence grew stronger in the 15th century, English scholars wanted to remind their readers that the majority of the language’s vocabulary came from Latin and Greek. They added the b to show off their understanding of doubt, which was then written ‘dout’ because it came into medieval English via French doute and was derived initially from Latin dubitare. It was a nationalistic act in a sense, reasserting English’s Classical beginnings over the Dutch, French, German, and Norse influences of the millennium since Roman dominance diminished in Britain in the fifth century and Anglo-Saxon languages began to invade.”
Ursula Dubosarsky also has some thoughts on how silent letters have evolved: “Another thing to keep in mind is that many of today’s silent letters were not always silent. The word knight, for example, was once pronounced with the k and the gh sounded out (ke-nee-g-hht), as were many silent e’s and l’s in English.
And the silent w in terms like wreck or write was added to depict a comical Old English r sound that was different from the regular r. However, the way people spoke English changed over time, even if the spelling remained the same. Not to mention The Great Vowel Shift…”
Silent TH
Words like thief, throw, and both have the voiceless “th.” It is represented by the theta: in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). It is sometimes simply represented by lowercase th in a rudimentary phonetic representation.
When is ‘th’ silent?
‘th’ is silent in a few words.
asthma(n), asthmatic(n, adj), asthmatically(adv), isthmian(adj), isthmus(n).
A Comprehensive List
Words Beginning with Silent TH
thorn
thin
think
thunder
thousand
thirsty
thief
thermometer
theater
thermos
thaw
thing
thread
thoughtful
three
thick
thumb
thigh
third
thank you
thirty
thirteen
therapy
Thursday
thimble
Words with Silent TH in the Middle
bathtub
toothache
toothbrush
python
marathon
healthy
truthful
wealthy
athlete
bathrobe
panther
toothpaste
birthday
something
pathway
toothpick
Words with Silent TH at the Ending
cloth
moth
math
tooth
fifth
beneath
path
month
wreath
booth
broth
ninth
tenth
breath
bath
earth
mouth
teeth
youth
north
strength
south
oath
both
eighth
hath
Ruth
2 Syllable Silent TH Words
thankful
thankless
thank you
theme song
thermal
thicken
thickness
thimble
thinking
thinner
third base
thirteen
thirty
thistle
thorny
thoughtful
thousand
thumbtack
thunder
Thursday
3 Syllable Silent TH Words
thankfulness
thanksgiving
thank you card
thank you note
theater
theory
therapist
therapy
thermostat
thesaurus
thickener
thinkable
thinking cap
third baseman
thirty one - thirty eight
thoroughly
thunderbird
thundercloud
thunderstorm
Conclusion
Once you understand the rules, most languages that use phonetic alphabets are rather simple to read and pronounce. Simply put, you speak what you see. Some languages, such as English and French, do, nevertheless, utilize a lot of silent letters. This is a list of letters that have been written but not spoken. These letters are frequently left over from when the term was pronounced differently than it is now. Silent letters can be mastered by understanding the laws of the language and remembering typical silent letter words. You can seek up the pronunciation or ask a native speaker if you’re still unsure whether a letter in a word is silent.
