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Silent letters can distinguish between homophones; e.g., in/inn; be/bee; lent/leant. This is an aid to readers already familiar with both words. Silent letters may give an insight into the meaning or origin of a word; e.g., vineyard suggests vines more than the phonetic *vinyard would.
Some words contain silent letters, which do not represent any sound in modern English pronunciation. Examples include the l in talk , half , calf , etc., the w in two and sword , gh as mentioned above in numerous words such as though , daughter , night , brought , and the commonly encountered silent e (discussed further below).
In English orthography, the letter k normally reflects the pronunciation of [] and the letter g normally is pronounced /ɡ/ or "hard" g , as in goose, gargoyle and game; /d͡ʒ/ or "soft" g , generally before i or e , as in giant, ginger and geology; or /ʒ/ in some words of French origin, such as rouge, beige and genre.
The English language is notorious for its use of silent letters. In fact, about 60 percent of English words contain a silent letter. In many cases, these silent letters actually were pronounced ...
It showcases "English words with silent letters and bizarre spellings." [2] The book was published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky on November 13, 2018. [3] It peaked at number 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list in the category for children's picture books. [4] It has sold more than 210,000 copies. [5]
There is an article containing a list of words with silent letters for each letter A-Z. It is nominated as an Article for Deletion, so I completely rewrote it to include some of the history of why there are so many silent letters in English words. It is called Silent English alphabet. You are invited to contribute to the discussion regarding ...
A silent u can indicate a hard pronunciation in words borrowed from French (as in analogue, league, guide) or words influenced by French spelling conventions (guess, guest); a silent h serves a similar purpose in Italian-derived words (ghetto, spaghetti).
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